By Adelle Roopchand
BRIDGETOWN, Jan 27, 2020 (CNS) – The Caribbean’s food production sector – farmers and fishers – continuously face the challenge of economic losses, particularly the high cost of rebuilding after floods and severe weather impacts; and lower production when hit by drought.
For this reason, Karen Montiel, Manager, Climate Change, Natural Resources and Production Risks programmes at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), says finance should be a major topic in any current agricultural discussions and planning in terms of resilience of agriculture.
The architecture of climate finance is in “constant evolution and it is complex and it is the onus of farmers and stakeholders to know more on how to access finance for adaptation to climate impacts,” Montiel told Caribbean News Service (CNS).
“Every farmer should be aware of facilities available to them to improve their agriculture resilience. There is an integration of agriculture and climate finance available through mechanisms and instruments such as the Global Green Fund (GGF).”
Montiel spoke with CNS at a recently held forum of climate finance experts who focused their attention on the issue of accessing climate finance for agriculture.
The forum, under the theme Climate Finance and Support Mechanisms for a Resilient Agriculture sector in the Caribbean, was hosted by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) under EU-ACP support and IICA.
She listed the following steps to be taken when trying to access of climate finance:
- Access information.
- Public-Private Partnership.
- Capacity building.
- Informed decision-making.
“The use of science, knowledge management and information are vital to support effective, informed decision-making about policies and investments,” Montiel said.
“An Integrative approach to promoting collaborative work between agriculture and environment, and participatory processes between different stakeholders of different processes [public, private, academy, NGOs] will improve our chances for resilient agriculture,” she added.
Meanwhile, Robert Reid, Agribusiness and Commercialization International Consultant, says in order for there is to be noteworthy impact on sustainable socio-economic development, private agribusiness service providers, especially national financial institutions (FIs) that have the technical capacity and requisite human resources, must be sensitized, encouraged and given the incentive to become more proactive partners.
Reid explained that by being proactive partners, “FIs must engage small aggregated producers and public agencies to access the massive amount of funds that are dedicated by international bodies to the adaptation of market-driven climate smart agricultural practices and resilience initiatives.”
Joseph Cox, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Assistant Secretary General with the mandate for Trade and Economics told CNS, “Information asymmetry, which is manifested in dysfunctional bureaucracy has become the bane of meaningful climate finance with particular reference to agriculture.”
He explained that this remains a critical factor, which must be tackled “with urgency as once overcome will foster the transformation of the agricultural sector in so far as the removal of that significant constraint to access to finance.”
Cox added that the transformation will serve to unlock the potential of the industry in terms of increased aggregated output and the concomitant climate change adaptation strategies.
