During the first term of the 2024/2025 Academic Year, Cari-Bois partnered with the Scotiabank Foundation to empower ten (10) students with climate journalism skills as part of the second edition of Cari-Bois’ Youth Journalism Project. For their second assignment, students wrote a story about how climate change affects their respective communities. This story was written by Andrea Caldon of Brazil Secondary School.
For residents in the village of Four Roads in Tamana, agriculture is a key economic activity as it sustains their livelihoods.
But in the last 10 years, farmers in the village have observed that temperatures are gradually getting warmer by the day, which has affected their agricultural production.
Rising temperatures, associated with climate change, affect many aspects of agriculture.
Other climate related threats affecting farmers include droughts, floods, pests and diseases.
While speaking to farmers in the community, many said that their crops have been affected by diseases with some even reporting crop failures in the past several years.
In the past, Four Roads residents have been satisfied with the quantity and quality of their bumper crops.
However, recent decreases in crop yield have led to some villagers turning to import crops to close the gaps where there are deficits in supplies.
One Farmer Shares His Story of Decreasing Yields and Product Quality
While importing crops is a “band aid” to current issues affecting Four Road farmers, they do recognise its unsustainable.
A longtime farmer in the community, Aaron Calbio said that in 2010 he harvested between 600 and 800 kilograms of cocoa during the months of November to April.
When compared to yields in recent years, Calbio said it has decreased to 250 to 300 kilograms of cocoa in the same period.
Apart from a decline in quantity, Calbio said he has also noticed changes in the quality of the product.
This can affect sales as customers are less likely to purchase vegetables that are smaller in size and weight.
The Role of Weather in Decreasing Yields
When asked, some farmers shared that the decreasing yields are a result of increasingly tough growing conditions like extremely dry weather in some growing seasons and over saturated soils in other seasons when there is torrential rain.
While there has been an effort by farmers in the community to lower their retail prices to make their products more attractive, some are finding this difficult to do because of the investment in technologies needed to limit the effects of climate change on their farms.
Apart from technology, farmers are also investing in drainage work on an annual basis during the rainy season to minimize the risk of flooding.
During the devastating Trinidad 2018 flooding event, farmer Calvin David lost over TTD $1 million in equipment and crops under his care – that were in different stages of production – was lost.
Flooding and extreme drought are serious effects of climate change that can result in a loss of productivity, crops and revenue for farmers.
It can also have the chain effect of giving way to shortages in agricultural yield that can increase food prices, which will drive up inflation and raise the cost of living for consumers.
With the reality of climate change affecting the cost of production for farmers, not only do they have to invest in expensive infrastructure, but they are also faced with the very real risk of losing thousands of dollars in the event of a drought or a flood.
Given the challenges associated with climate change that farmers are facing, it is necessary for authorities like the Ministry of Agriculture to revise the laws, policies and assistance in place for farmers in times of extreme weather and duress.
A very special thank you to the Scotiabank Foundation for supporting the development of young people through initiatives like the Cari-Bois Youth Journalism Project.
