Farming and agricultural production on Mangaia Island, Cook Islands. Photo credit: Ministry of Agriculture, Cook Islands

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, Aug 29 2021 (IPS)

Finding ways to be smarter producers of food was a priority in small island developing states (SIDS) before the outbreak of Covid-19. Now the ideas of farmers and entrepreneurs, such as Piri Maao in the Cook Islands, are being avidly sought by governments and development bodies, which are keen to drive resilience and recovery as the pandemic moves into its second year.

Similar to other SIDS, the Cook Islands has limited arable land and finite water resources, while agricultural production has declined in recent decades and food imports increased.

In April this year, Maao was awarded a SMART AgriTech funding grant by the government of the Polynesian nation to establish a solar-powered hydroponics greenhouse to grow vegetables year round.

Considering the force and isolation of COVID-19, strengthening food production and distribution systems is key to fighting hunger and tackling the double burden of malnutrition. The development of aqua and hydroponics embraces all dimensions of food security

“Growing in a greenhouse eliminates any environmental issues, such as rain and wind, which I currently face in a soil-based system. There is a reduced use of pesticides; insect screens will help eliminate a lot of the larger insects, such as moths and beetles. Solar power to run the system ensures sustainability and low running costs,” Maao, an agricultural entrepreneur on the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, told IPS.

The SMART AgriTech Scheme, which was launched in July 2020, is one way the Cook Islands government has responded to the pandemic with a long-term vision.

“Through the AgriTech grants, successful applicants were given the opportunity to pursue new ideas: ideas that can transform a business or the agriculture industry through innovation and productivity improvements, respond to opportunities that are driven by new ideas or meeting new market needs, facilitate better connections between producers, processors and marketers, and reduce farming’s environmental footprint through new technology and more efficient processes, mitigating the impacts of climate change,” Hon. Mark Brown, the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, told IPS.

Rarotonga is one of 15 islands that make up the Pacific Islands nation, which is located in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, south of Hawaii and southeast of Samoa. Its economy and population of about 17,500 people were, until last year, hugely dependent on the tourism industry, which contributed about 67 percent of GDP.

Today the closing of national borders and rapid decline of tourism in the wake of Covid-19 has triggered a decline in local incomes and livelihoods, and highlighted the country’s need to rely less on food imports and grow more locally. The average value of food production in the Cook Islands declined from 231 US dollars per person in 2002 to 43 dollars per person in 2018, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Meanwhile, food is the second largest expense for islanders, amounting to 22.5 percent of household spending in 2016.

Recently, “production has remained consistent, but, when our borders closed, sales of local products plummeted due to the reduction in our tourism sector. Food security and nutrition remains a priority for us, so we advocate to ensure we have sufficient food to feed our population before seeking export opportunities,” Mrs Temarama Anguna-Kamana, Head of the Cook Islands’ Ministry of Agriculture told IPS.

Maao began working on his concept for a greenhouse several years ago and undertook market research to prove there was significant local demand for his produce before going ahead with the business project.

Hydroponics is a form of horticulture where crops are grown in an indoor environment with their roots immersed in a nutrient-rich aqueous solution. Some benefits of this technique are that it doesn’t use soil and minimises the use of land and water. On Rarotonga, agriculture accounts for a major 40 percent of all water usage. Standalone hydroponic systems, which can also be developed at the household level, provide the consistent growing conditions to support uninterrupted production.

“Considering the force and isolation of COVID-19, strengthening food production and distribution systems is key to fighting hunger and tackling the double burden of malnutrition. The development of aqua and hydroponics embraces all dimensions of food security,” advocates the FAO.

Maao is developing a ‘drip fertigation hydroponics’ system, in which irrigation of plants inside the greenhouse from a tank containing a nutrient solution is automatically triggered at the most optimum times of the day. Initially he will be growing red, yellow and orange capsicum, although the entrepreneur plans to diversify with other crops in the near future. Maao’s greenhouse is currently in the construction phase. “We anticipate to have it completed and, weather dependent, fully operational by the end of next month,” he said.

Maao said his project is responding to the country’s food security needs by “increasing local production, the availability of healthy vegetables, locally and consistently, and reducing their importation.” And, with his partner and son working alongside him, he said he was also supporting wider youth and gender participation.

Promoting innovation in all aspects of the agricultural industry, from cultivation to processing, value adding and marketing stages, will be further discussed among the region’s leaders and growers at the SIDS Solutions Forum. The virtual international conference, which is co-hosted by the FAO and Fiji Government, convenes on 30-31 August. Participating countries include Antigua and Barbuda, Seychelles, Madagascar, Barbados, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

The event will bring together national leaders, development organizations, experts, the private sector and farmers from SIDS around the world to discuss ‘digitalization and innovation for sustainable agriculture, food, nutrition, environment and health.’

“In this, the year of the UN Food Systems Summit, the forum will demonstrate that diverse types of digital and non-digital solutions, many of them home grown and local, are available for the unique challenges of agri-food systems in the SIDS. Strategies for scaling up efficiently with targeted investments in infrastructure and by providing an enabling environment for women and youth entrepreneurs will be outlined,” Sridhar Dharmapuri, Senior Food Safety and Nutrition Officer at the FAO Regional Office for Asia Pacific in Bangkok, told IPS.

It is hoped that knowledge sharing at the forum about better outcomes in food production and nutrition in SIDS will help them to ‘leap frog’ their progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ancel Bhagwandeen with his hydroponic unit for growing vegetables indoors. The unit makes use of smart electronics. Credit: Jewel Fraser/IPS

By Jewel Fraser
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Feb 27 2014 (IPS)

Industrial engineer Ancel Bhagwandeen thinks that growing your food indoors is a great way to protect crops from the stresses of climate change. So he developed a hydroponic system that “leverages the nanoclimates in houses so that the house effectively protects the produce the same way it protects us,” he says.

Bhagwandeen told IPS that his hydroponic project was also developed “to leverage the growth of the urban landscape and high-density housing, so that by growing your own food at home, you mitigate the cost of food prices.”

The hydroponic unit can also run on solar energy. Credit: Jewel Fraser/IPS

Hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil using mineral nutrients in water, is increasingly considered a viable means to ensure food security in light of climate change.

His project is one of several being considered for further development by the Caribbean Climate Innovation Centre (CCIC), headquartered in Jamaica.

The newly launched CCIC, which is funded mainly by the World Bank and the government of Canada, seeks to  fund innovative projects that will “change the way we live, work and build to suit a changing climate,” said Everton Hanson, the CCIC’s CEO.

A first step to developing such projects is through Proof of Concept (POC) funding, which makes available grants from 25,000 to 50,000 dollars to successful applicants to “help the entrepreneur to finance those costs that are related to proving that the idea can work,” said Hanson.

Among the items that POC funding will cover are prototype development such as design, testing, and field trials; market testing; raw materials and consumables necessary to achieve proof of concept; and costs related to applications for intellectual property rights in the Caribbean.

A POC competition is now open that will run until the end of March. “After that date the applications will be evaluated. We are looking for ideas that can be commercialised and the plan is to select the best ideas,” Hanson said.

The CCIC, which is jointly managed by the Scientific Research Council in Jamaica and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute in Trinidad and Tobago, is seeking projects that focus on water management, resource use efficiency, energy efficiency, solar energy, and sustainable agribusiness.

Bhagwandeen entered the POC competition in hopes of securing a grant, because “this POC funding would help in terms of market testing,” he explained.

The 48-year-old engineer says he wishes to build dozens of model units and “distribute them in various areas, then monitor the operations and take feedback from users.” He said he would be testing for usability and reliability, as well as looking for feedback on just how much light is needed and the best locations in a house or building for situating his model.

“I would then take the feedback, and any issues that come up I can refine before going into mass marketing,” he said.

Bhagwandeen’s model would enable homeowners to grow leafy vegetables, including herbs, lettuce and tomatoes, inside their home or apartment, with minimal expense and time.

The model uses smart electronics, meaning that 100 units can run on the same energy as a 60-watt light bulb, he said. So it differs from typical hydroponics systems that consume a great deal of energy, he added. His model can also run on the energy provided by its own small solar panel and can work both indoors and outdoors.

Bhagawandeen said his model’s design is premised on the fact that “our future as a people is based more and more on city living and in order for that to be sustainable, we need to have city farming at a family level.”

A U.N. report says that “the population living in urban areas is projected to gain 2.6 billion, passing from 3.6 billion in 2011 to 6.3 billion in 2050.” Most of that urban growth will be concentrated in the cities and towns of the world’s less developed regions.

To meet the challenges of climate change adaptation, the CCIC “will support Caribbean entrepreneurs involved in developing locally appropriate solutions to climate change.”

Bhagwandeen said that support from organisations like the CCIC is critical for climate change entrepreneurs. “From the Caribbean perspective, especially Trinidad and Tobago, we are a heavily consumer-focused society. One of the negatives of Trinidad’s oil wealth is that we are not accustomed to developing technology for ourselves. We buy it.

“We are a society of traders and distributors and there is very little support for innovators and entrepreneurs.”

He said access to markets and investors poses a serious challenge for regional innovators like himself, who typically have to rely on bootstrapping to get their business off the ground.

Typically, he said, regional innovators have to make small quantities of an item, sell those items, and then use the funds to make incrementally larger quantities. “So that if you get an order for 500 units, you cannot fulfill that order,” he said.

Fourteen Caribbean states are involved in CCIC: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Caribbean CCIC is one of eight being developed across the world.

CFBC Professor Dr. Leighton Naraine in the plant research facility at the college. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Desmond Brown
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, May 21 2013 (IPS)

As Caribbean communities grapple with the entwined challenges of climate change and food security, modern technologies offer hope that the region’s stagnating agricultural sector can be made more profitable.

For the past six years, the University of Central Florida (UCF) has teamed up with the St. Kitts-based Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) to implement a climate change education project for sustainable development in the region.

The institutions are reporting “tremendous success” using hydroponics, organoponics and hybrid-ponics, techniques that they insist are far more cost-effective.

“Climate change affects us all and one of the areas that we are most vulnerable is in the field of food security, namely agriculture. So my task as part of this team was to develop models to test various scenarios to see which one would be the most significant,” Stuart La Place, a lecturer at CFBC told IPS.

“Strawberries don’t usually grow in these climates but we have managed to grow them successfully and we are still growing them at the moment,” he said.

Hydroponics is a technique used to grow plants without soil, instead using mineral nutrient solutions in water.

The organoponics technique involves using a single layer of soil, sand, manure and potting soil for planting vegetables. La Place noted “this is being implemented in St. Kitts on a large scale at the moment.”

Hybridponics, he explained, “is a scenario we created at the college that lends itself to starting the initial growing techniques in hydro and then transplanting into the organo beds and we have had significant results.”

Former CFBC student Candace Richards agrees these methods are more cost-effective and profitable than traditional agriculture.

Noting that for a 20 by 20-foot plot, the hydroponic system costs 2,000 dollars to set up and the organoponics system 3,703 dollars, she said it’s “a worthy investment” since the estimated annual profits are in the region of 66,660 dollars after all costs are deducted. In comparison, a plot of the same size devoted to traditional agriculture produces approximately 740 dollars per month profit.

“This is better than traditional agriculture that requires more land space, is more labour intensive and presents challenges that can yield fewer crops,” Richards told IPS, pointing to the added advantage of having crops all year round rather than on a seasonal basis under traditional agriculture.

Using the organoponics method, it takes 45 days to get lettuce from seed to maturity, using 9.1 gallons of water; while with hydroponics, from a seed the lettuce takes 25 days to mature and uses significantly less water because it’s in a circulation system. The water keeps moving around and the only way out of that system is through the plant.

Growing lettuce the traditional way – planting in the ground – the growth cycle from a seed to maturity is 55 days and uses 11.3 gallons of water for a single plant from a dripper that delivers 50 milliletres per minute.

Each summer a group of UCF students visit St. Kitts and Nevis through the President’s Scholars programme at UCF to work with students at faculty at CFBC.

Charlene Kormondy was among 11 UCF students who travelled to St. Kitts and Nevis in 2012 under the programme.

“I was part of the agro technology team and our product was to build a shade house now known as the CFBC plant research facility,” she told IPS.

“When we got to St. Kitts we worked alongside students from St. Kitts and Nevis, CFBC professors and members of the local community to construct the shade house.

“It’s an example of action learning, implanting something that is a solution to a problem in the community and also generating knowledge about how to build these shade house systems and how to make agriculture more sustainable in the face of climate change, which you know could have temperature and precipitation impacts which could adversely affect crop production,” she said.

Now that the facility is up and running, Kormondy said it provides many tangible benefits to the community, including health benefits because the plants and vegetables grown there are substitutes for less healthy foods.

She said it can also lead to greater independence from foreign imports, and even gender equality.

“Women and children are the ones who are most vulnerable to climate-related disasters and socio-economic impacts, and this kind of agricultural system allows women to participate in agriculture but also have enough energy to devote to their role as primary caregivers and that’s because the growth of these plants are more efficient,” Kormondy said.

Another UCF student, Jessica Gottsleben, noted that a rise in tourism has led the economy and lucrative jobs to be less focused on agriculture, and food imports now exceed exports by a factor of four to one.

“Food supply is vulnerable from these climate-related disruptions,” she noted, adding that in future years the programme will seek to create local leaders from the youth being brought into the agricultural and business communities to increase self-sufficiency and resilience.

“The partnership has the potential to create jobs in existing sectors of agriculture and also create innovation in fostering jobs in areas such as agro tourism, agro processing, marketing, collecting evidence-based social data,” Gottsleben told IPS.

Sixteen CFBC students are currently registered in the programme and are trained in building the hydroponic system.

But UCF Professor Dr. Kevin Meehan said they are getting the wider community involved through what’s known as ‘The Take Five Programme’ that was implemented in February last year.

“We used a publicity campaign in print and electronic media to invite the general public as well as CFBC faculty to come to the campus to bring five containers (hence the name take five) and we would drill drainage holes in the containers, fill them with nutrient rich potting soil and then put in seedlings and then they would take those home to cultivate those buckets.”

Some 52 participants showed up over the course of three days at the CFBC campus.

“A second round of ‘Take Five’ was driven by the students and they adapted it as an outreach competition to the primary schools throughout the Federation,” Meehan said.

With funding from the Organisation of American States under the Special Multilateral Fund of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development, Dr. Meehan said they are now getting ready to implement the programme in Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana and at two separate locations in Haiti.

The UCF and CFBC representatives participated in a two-day UNESCO Sub-Regional Meeting on the environment and climate in Nevis on May 15 and 16.

It was organised by UNESCO in collaboration with the St. Kitts and Nevis National Commission on UNESCO and the Nevis Island Administration to support national adaptation policies to climate change in the Small Island Developing States of the Caribbean.