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Modern human society depends on the large-scale
production of food. However, it is
expected that agricultural production will be affected by the severity and the
pace of global climate change. Crop
yields and productivity will be affected due to changes in rainfall regimes,
warmer and wetter conditions can lead to a proliferation of plant pests and
hazardous insects. These have the potential to wipe out entire crops.
Drier conditions are likely to increase the spread of wind-borne pest
such as insects and microbial spores.
The vulnerability of the Caribbean’s
agricultural sector is considered to be high. Practices
of conservation, use of improved crop varieties, crop rotation and improved pest
control measure will become increasingly important. Various research institutions are working
to this end. One of them is the The
Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), another
is the Inter-American Institute
for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA). The French national research
institute for agriculture, Institut
National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) has a special
centre in three locations in the Caribbean. PROCICARIBE
is the Caribbean Agricultural Science and Technology Networking System. It is
designed to provide an institutional framework by which the region can design
and implement strategies for the integration and coordination of agricultural
research at the national and regional levels with linkages to international
organizations.
Fisheries are also expected to be affected.
Caribbean fishing grounds are relatively poor in nutrients, therefore,
factors such as hypersalinity, turbidity and temperature changes are expected to
further deplete fish stocks. Increased
temperatures can lead to coral bleaching which can be detrimental to fish stocks
and expose coasts to wave energy.
Within the framework of the Global
Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS) project there is a Caribbean
Food System project goals of which are to determine strategies to cope with
the impacts of global environmental change on food systems and to assess the
environmental and socioeconomic consequences of adaptive responses aimed at
improving food security. The subject has been discussed in several workshops
with presentations and papers available online:
- Caribbean
Food System "Issue Identification" Workshop, April 2002,
Port-of-Spain
- Caribbean
Food System "Developing a Research Agenda”, September 2002, St
Augustine, Trinidad
- Caribbean
Food System "Research Issues" Workshop, October 2002,
Castries, St Lucia
- Caribbean
Food Systems "Proposal Planning" workshop, February
2003, St James, Barbados
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