Farmers urged to get back on track with climate-proofing strategy for food security
Published:Thursday | December 7, 2023 | 12:10 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter -
As the year comes to a close, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) is calling for Jamaican farmers to still take on one major international objective that has not been carried out on a wide scale in 2023. That is to invest more into the reintroduction of millets production, which was the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) major investment push for countries over the past 11 months.
Millets can grow on arid land with minimal inputs and are resilient to change in climate.
At the March 2021 United Nations General Assembly’s 75th session,, 2023 was declared the International Year of Millets (IYM 2023). The FAO is the lead agency for celebrating the year in collaboration with other relevant stakeholders.
It is aimed at raising awareness and prioritising policy actions on the nutrition and health advantage of millets and to use millets for adaptability to adverse and fluctuating climate conditions.
Ainsworth Riley, IICA agri-business specialist, renewed the call for investment in millets at the IICA Accountability Seminar and Youth in Agri-Business Awards, held at Terra Nova All Suite Hotel in St Andrew yesterday.
Riley said the pearl millet is being targeted the most for Jamaica, particularly for the flat terrain areas in St Ann, St Thomas, St Catherine, Clarendon, and St Elizabeth.
“As a crop, it is better adapted to dry, infertile soil ... . It has a short growing season, which is three months, and it has strong deep roots, again good where climate proofing is concerned and, of course, management of soil ... . It’s one of those crops that can be used as climate proofing for our agricultural sector and, of course, our food security,” Riley said.
“We celebrated a year of millets and a number of countries, some have already been producing millets, but of course, it has been promoted as an alternative source of food, not just for animals. In our case, we are looking for animals, but it is also food for human consumption.”
Riley noted that there have been attempts in the past to produce millets in Jamaica through a company called Pioneer Seed, but that entity left the island and there has since been no real continuity where millets production is concerned.
He also addressed the issue of millets being used as an alternative source of animal feed in comparison to, for example, corn.
“In terms of the production of millets, compared to say a corn, we realise that corn is the big guy out there, but there are countries that are of course, producing millets. We realise in Africa a lot of production is going on. Of course, in Asia as well as the Americas and of course North America,” Riley said. “It doesn’t compare with corn, but there is some production going on.”
He also said that a situational analysis was done by the IICA of animal feeds in Jamaica, and it was found that most of the animal feeds come from the United States and account for a large chunk of Jamaica’s food-import bill.
He said that in terms of creating a policy document for millets, the IICA has met with 17 stakeholders from both the public and private sector who are committed to continuing to support millets research.