Green urges engineers to innovate climate-resilient farming solutions
Published:Friday | September 20, 2024 | 12:06 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Floyd Green is calling on the engineering fraternity to craft farming solutions that can support the local sector amid the challenges of an ever-shifting climate landscape.
“Now is the time for all of our engineers – and especially our engineer associations – to pay more attention in helping us here in Jamaica transform from our traditional, primary production agriculture to processes that can optimise our efficiency and our productivity,” Green said.
He was speaking on day two of the 2024 Engineers’ Week Conference and Exposition of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Thursday.
Engineers’ Week is being observed from September 15 to 21 under the theme ‘Engineering: Preserving a Legacy, Embracing Sustainability and Driving Technology’.
The minister also urged engineers to leverage their expertise in design, development, equipment, and facilities “to play a critical role in transferring those skills to develop the tools that we need in our present reality of an agricultural system in a changing climate”.
He continued: “We want more [members] of your association to focus on agricultural engineering ... . We don’t have enough engineers that focus their craft on our agricultural solutions.”
Green emphasised that the ministry faces several challenges that he believes engineers could help address.
“The major challenge is that our climate has changed. We do rely on climatic conditions significantly in all of our agricultural sector here in Jamaica, and in small-island economies, to function efficiently,” he said, noting that persistent, rising temperatures are affecting agriculture.
He continued that no longer were plants able to enjoy the coolness of night as this had been reduced significantly.
The minister also acknowledged other issues such as challenges accessing water for irrigation, soil degradation, less fertile and drier soils, and an increase in diseases and pests – all of which threaten the sector.
“If we are to survive, if we are to do well, if we are to feed ourselves, then we have to come up with climate-smart tools and designs and resources ... . The solution lies with our engineers,” Green said, further stating that agriculture and engineering go hand in hand.
Reflecting on the impact of the Category 4 Hurricane Beryl in July, Green stated that 688,000 square feet of greenhouse structures – or 236 greenhouses – were destroyed, affecting 224 farmers and costing the country approximately $856 million.
“Most of those greenhouses were lost in St Elizabeth, Clarendon, and Manchester. They were lost because of the extent of the wind that we faced from Hurricane Beryl. The question is, are our greenhouses now, as designed, fit for purpose for our reality?” he asked.
Green stated that the country would face “bigger, stronger storms” in the future with climate change and that this necessitates the adoption of a new design for greenhouses.
“[Greenhouses] have become the backbone of our agricultural system because of their ability to provide food throughout any weather condition and the ability for you to engineer the climate that you want to ensure that you track the growth times,” the minister noted.
He shared that he would be willing to partner with the Jamaica Institution of Engineers “to create a clearer pathway to develop the next generation of agriculture engineers”.
Green added that he was also interested in partnering with the College of Agriculture, Science and Education, The University of the West Indies, and the University of Technology, Jamaica, along with other universities, to offer scholarships and develop programmes that “are tailormade for our agricultural realities and development engineering solutions”.