Stakeholders In Agricultural Sector To Benefit From GCAF

The lives of up to 600 stakeholders in the agricultural sector are expected to be impacted by the Gender Responsive Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems in the Caribbean (GCAF) Project, by 2028.

Funded by the Government of Canada, work will be done in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining.

The National Inception Workshop, which will serve as the national launch of the project in Jamaica, is slated to take place tomorrow (January 23), at the S Hotel on St. Lucia Avenue in Kingston, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

The project will be implemented in eight Caribbean countries – Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname –with a focus on ‘Empowering Women and Youth for Climate Resilience in Agriculture’.

International Value Chain Expert and Project Coordinator at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Vermaran Extavour, told JIS News that the project is valued at Can$10.5 million.

“This week we are in Jamaica to have the full external stakeholder engagement. The objective of the project really focuses on building the capacities of women, youth and men too, because our target is 50 per cent women, and it’s really not only about one side of the gender; it’s both genders being strengthened based on their constraints,” she said.

“We are using what we know to identify one to two priority commodity value chains that will work with the actors to improve their linkages by introducing and promoting the use of climate-smart technologies and tools,” Ms. Extavour added.

The project, which is expected to run until 2028, will provide capacity-building through training in business modelling and financial planning, the use of sustainable practices, strengthening market access and addressing gender constraints.

Ms. Extavour, who is based in the sub-regional office for the Caribbean in Barbados, said that in touching the lives of beneficiaries, the focus rests on ensuring that everyone on the chain has the capacity to use climate-smart tools to improve their production and productivity.

“By doing that, we expect to have improved livelihoods of agro-processors, farmers and actors along the chain, as well as having established and strengthened business linkages along the value chain. We also want to strengthen their ability to access financing and markets, by improving their capacities through training and addressing some of the issues related to things like food safety, packaging and handling,” she said.

Activities under the project are slated to start in June of this year and will centre around the creation and distribution of resources to enhance the efficient use of tools by both men and women as well as encouraging the use of innovative agricultural practices by youth.

Work will also be done to strengthen agro-processing and production facilities to boost climate resilience and minimise food waste and the organisation of community fairs and national forums to connect local producers with buyers regionally and nationally.

The project was born out of a request from the Government of Canada in 2023, seeking first to strengthen the engagement of women and youth in the agricultural sector in the Caribbean.

In response to that, the FAO prepared a project proposal of up to $10 million Canadian for implementation in eight countries. With the impact of Hurricane Beryl, Canada has donated another Can$500,000 to strengthen disaster risk management and response in three countries (Jamaica, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines).