In 2017, the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that the cost of importing food was
set to rise to the tone of USD 1.143 trillion, a 6 percent increase from 2016 and the second
highest tally on record according to FAO's latest Food Outlook report. One of
the main reasons for the higher import bill is not necessarily a higher demand
for food but the increasing costs of freight tariffs. This is of particular
concern for Least-Developed Countries (LDC) and Low-Income Food-Deficit
Countries (LIFDCS). The interesting reality is that most of the countries on
the list of LIFDCS in Africa or the Caribbean have cultivable land to produce raw
commodities (coffee, cocoa, bananas, spices, etc.), however, local supply
chains suffer from extreme fragmentation- unable to connect local farmers to
commercial markets. This problem warrants a solution that facilitates and
simplifies the access to locally-sourced produce.
Beginning with the
Eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia, the ‘Green Gold Project’ project seeks
to reduce the country’s overall food-import bill by focusing on import
substitution through the linkage of agriculture and tourism by using mobile and
agricultural technologies and trainings on sustainable farming practices that
marry crop-diversification and climate-resilience, all while engaging rural
women who are generally unable to access these markets.
In St. Lucia, one-fifth of the working population is engaged in
agriculture and more than two-thirds of households on the island are headed by
single-mothers. Land is owned generally by men and most female farmers are
either rent-seekers or only have access to land through a spouse or male family
member. At the peak of the banana boom, bananas contributed to $87.6M to St.
Lucia’s economy, so much so that bananas were referred to as ‘Green Gold’.
However, with the collapse of the ‘banana economy’, St. Lucia is solely focused
on tourism with a food import bill of about $360M - much of which can be grown
locally and bought at a lower price than when imported. With a bustling tourism
industry boasting over 1.1 million visitors this year alone, the hotel industry
can be a big contributor to local farmers. Shifting to local supply could be
life-changing for the more than one-fifth of the working population that are
active in agriculture.
Our
social enterprise solution leverages technology and in-person trainings to fill
the gaps in the agricultural-food-tourism system and to spur targeted
agricultural supply by rural women. The five key components to facilitate this
agricultural and tourism linkage are listed below:
Women’s economic empowerment is at the center of our mandate, as women
are still struggling to be recognized as farmers in Saint
Lucia and so are less likely to be invited by agricultural
extension officers for trainings or incentives targeted towards
farmers. This initiative is revolutionary because it has the potential to
not only improve the financial stability of rural women but of the families
that are headed by these women (more than two-thirds of households in the
island are headed by single-mothers) and would legitimize women as agri-entrepreneurs,
which would in turn open opportunities such as access to receive financial
assistance from banks and other lending institutions. Finally, by strengthening
the knowledge and output of farmers, we would once again be able to bring value
to what is so often the undervalued role of a farmer in society.
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