Audley Shaw's Plan for Agriculture at Denbigh 2018 needs Mechatronics, Vertical Farming Tech

“Over the past five years, the agriculture sector in the Caribbean has been affected by shifts in weather patterns. We have experienced significant episodes of prolonged droughts, frequent intense rainfall, flooding and hurricanes. Climate-related natural disasters, especially hurricane and drought, could result in losses estimated at US$22 billion annually by 2050 throughout the Caribbean”.

Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw speaking at the now concluded Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show on Saturday August 5^th 2018.

Climate change is now affecting us financially, through agriculture.

So says Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw who cites losses of $1 billion to the Agriculture Sector in the past two years as noted in the article “Climate change hits agriculture with $1b loss, says Shaw”, published Wednesday, August 08, 2018, The Jamaica Observer.

He made this statement at the recently concluded Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show on Saturday August 5th 2018, and pointed out that the effect was, quote: “beginning to have a sustained depreciating impact on agricultural production”.

I personally was at Denbigh and saw little improvement in the facilities and displays. Albeit technology was on display, very little of it was what small farmers could afford. A good example of this problem was this tractor which had an attach for ploughing up inside of a large chicken coop……who can afford this attachment, let alone a tractor for such a purpose?

Minister Audley Shaw is clearly aware of this as well as the financial constraints facing farmers, quote: “We recognise that there are several persistent challenges and constraints facing the agricultural sector, chief among these, of course, being the impact of climate change”.

So what has Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw done that will make a difference?

Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw - Crop Modelling a first vital step

In July 2018, the minster introduced crop modeling.

This is the use of computer simulation software to predict the effect of various factor on the growth of crops and thus better plan what to plant, when to plant it and the cost of inputs and potential yields.

Crop modeling software, like any simulation software, can help you plan and reduce losses and maximize on the yield of your field but with lower cost in terms of planning.

Crop Modeling software is used extensively in global agriculture with benefits such as:

1.      Increasing farmers' crop yields

2.      Improvement of research and extension capabilities

3.      Informing sustainable and effective planning

Now that we have this tool, which is really an advanced version of Farmville but for actual agriculture on real land, planning large scale farming should be a lot easier. Still, it does not address the losses by farmers, many of whom plant and raise livestock on their own land using traditional techniques that are effective but low yield.

Consequently many farmers do not make much money at the farm gate and even fewer invest in any newer farming technologies or techniques, especially if it involves loans or the possibility of the Government owning their land.

So ....how do you convince Farmers, who are steeped in traditional ways of farming that newer methods exist, to invest in any new technology?

Future of Agriculture - Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw Plans need financing

Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw does have some new strategies that I personally like.

He mentioned them at Denbigh and they are geared towards achieving sustainable production:

1.      Provision of more irrigation systems

2.      Implementing more drought-resistant measures such as water harvesting and storage

3.      Application of new technologies to include drones and alternative energy sources

4.      Coordinated value chain-driven partnerships and linkages between agriculture and industry

5.      Increased efforts to establish agricultural insurance schemes

We'll definately need some external funding for these overhauls of our ageing Agriculture sector as promised by Audley Shaw, quote: “It is worth repeating that grant funding from the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund, administered through the Caribbean Development Bank, in an amount equivalent to £35,515 million will go towards the cost of the Essex Valley Agricultural Development Project. ....”

So is this enough to transform Agriculture and make it resistant to Climate Change.

Food Security in the Face of Global Warming - Free Farming Loans and Incentives to modernize

I especially like the mention of Water Harvesting and long term water storage initiatives and the planned use of Drones and Alternative Energy Resources; these are thing I've written about before.

This is especially true of Water Harvesting which I suspect will eventually lead to the liberalization of the Water Sector in Jamaica as predicted in my blog article entitled “How Diehl Metering Prepaid Water meters for NWC enables Prepaid Water and Rainwater Harvesting”. 

Drones and possibly blimps with cameras could help with praedial larceny, which is more like organized crime as posited in this article “Full Potential Of Agriculture Remains Untapped – JAMPRO”, published Tuesday July 31, 2018, The Jamaica Gleaner.

What I do not hear or see more of his plans for Vertical Farming i.e. basically multi-storey buildings designed to grow crops in a controlled Hydroponic and Aquaponics environment, possibly using tissue culture as explained in my blog article entitled “How IGES Canada Ltd Vertical Hydroponic Aquaponic Towers make low cost Organic foods”.

Or even the use of Solar Power and a centralized network with moisture sensors to control the usage of water as show in the images below I took at Denbigh 2018.

Or plans to use of Mechatronics to do labour intensive tasks in agriculture such as checking on plants, pruning, weed control and livestock farming as explained in my blog article entitled  “How Australia's University of Sydney Livestock Farmbot heralds Efficient Agricultural Towers”. 

Whatever plans they have, they need to be given to farmers for free, with no strings attached for 5 years. This would be done in exchange for members of the Government to come in and manage the farm, with the farmer keeping the profits but benefitting from increased use of the above-mentioned agricultural technological innovations.

The Government of Jamaica could also have hotels involved in the management of the farms by specifying what they want to have grown and having farmers meet that demand as Audley Shaw had argued back in June 2018 as noted in this article “Minister Shaw Wants Hotels to Purchase More Local Produce”, published July 13, 2018 by Chad Bryan, The Jamaica Information Service. 

This in order to make us ready for a future of food scarcity as the world population increases as explained in my blog article entitled  “United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says Insects is the Meat for the next 20 years”. 

Still, Jamaica has to take small steps......or decided to makes sum huge leaps of faith, as increasing Global Temperatures threaten to make Drought a yearlong phenomenon.