During the second 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 third edition of Cari-Bois’ Youth Journalism Project. For their first assignment, students wrote an article about the effects of climate change on agriculture. This story was written by Ashada Durante of Fyzabad Secondary School.
In a recent publication by the Climate Change Knowledge Portal for Development Practitioners and Policy Makers, it is stated that consistently rising temperatures, melting arctic sea ice, and a rise in sea levels, are signs that the planet is getting warmer.
In the Caribbean, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture Policy Brief No. 27 states that climate change will cause a warmer and drier climate in the Caribbean with these conditions expected to have a significant impact on agriculture.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the effects of climate change are already being felt.
Information in the sixth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated Trinidad and Tobago is experiencing rising temperatures which is expected to continue in the coming years.
During a visit to WHYFARM in Siparia, the farm’s founder and director Alpha Sennon has said that, from his observations, there is no longer a predictable wet and dry season.
In recent years, Senon has seen periods of extensive rainfall followed by intense drought.
To adapt to these erratic weather patterns, Sennon maximises on the rainy periods by concentrating on cultivating dasheen bush leaves – a plant that thrives in wet weather – which are then used to create callaloo packs that are sold to supermarkets.
For other farmers, these unpredictable weather patterns have greatly affected crops like sweet potatoes.
In a 2019 fact sheet produced by the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Agriculture, Agriculture Officer, Rishi Mohansingh, explained that the West Indian sweet potato weevil thrives in warm temperatures and this pest can destroy an entire harvest.
When flooding occurs during heavy rainfall, the sweet potato can also be affected by black rot disease, which can result in low yields and a financial loss to farmers.
Another crop affected by climate change is cocoa.
In a November 2023 interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, Director of the UWI Cocoa Research Centre, Prof. Pathmanathan Umaharan, said cocoa production in Trinidad and Tobago has decreased by at least 50 percent in recent years due to pests, diseases and increased rainfall.
In the interview, he explained cocoa requires a distinct dry season that would cause the plant to respond to stress and produce flowers and pods.
However, the unpredictable wet and dry season coupled with extensive rainfall have obstructed the natural cycle resulting in low yields.
With cocoa production being one of Trinidad and Tobago’s foreign exchange earners, climate change not only affects cocoa but Trinidad and Tobago’s economy.
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.
