(ZIZ News)— The Inter- American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) launched the Climate Smart Agriculture Regional Competition on Wednesday.
The competition is said to be focused on farm technologies and practices that respond to the risks of climate change and their impacts.
Coordinator of the IICA delegation in St. Kitts and Nevis Augustine Merchant spoke of the aim of the month-long competition.
“The competition aims at identifying and raising awareness of successful cases of innovative and replicative agricultural technologies or practice that contribute to farmer’s resilience and adaptation to climatic change. What we really want is that farmers in st. Kitts see climate smart as a way of life. It should be part of what they are doing and that is the real reason behind this competition,” he said.
It was made clear during the launch that climate change affects the lively hood of farmers in a major way.
Permanent Secretary in Nevis’ Ministry of Agriculture Eric Evelyn referred to the competition as timely, stating that it gives farmers the opportunity to help in the fight against climate change.
He said, “I believe it is more incumbent on you the farmers to bring forth solutions as well because you are the one being affected, your lively hood is being affected and it is very important that you be a part of the solution and so i believe that this competition is very timely and it is giving our farmers the opportunity to showcase what they can do. I know that our farmers in St. Kitts and Nevis are very resilient.”
The competition, entitled ‘Climate Smart Agriculture: Stories From Farmers In The Eastern Caribbean States’, is open to agriculture organisations in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.