‘Urgent need’ to equip youth with climate-smart agricultural skills

Barbados is being urged to rapidly train more young people in agriculture and embrace climate-smart practices, as experts warned that securing the island’s food supply and building resilience to climate change will depend on the next generation’s skills.

As the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) hosted a field day for its Summer Youth Programme at Graeme Hall, Christ Church, IICA representative Allister Glean said the current intake of 40 participants was insufficient.

He said: “Annually, we have an estimated 40 students participate in the programme — crop production, livestock rearing, poultry production, aquaponics, and aquaculture. These are future farmers, future food producers for Barbados. Of course, we would like to see more persons participating.”

IICA representative Allister Glean.(Photos by Sheria Brathwaite)

The eight-week training gives secondary school students practical experience along with national or Caribbean Vocational Qualification certification. Glean stressed this creates regional opportunities but said the reach must expand. “We want more students. Hopefully, by next year, we’ll get up to 60,” he said.

He revealed that IICA and the TVET Council are already discussing new areas for training.

“The executive director [of the council] has been encouraging IICA to look at climate-related interventions. The more we look at agriculture for resilient production, the more it will benefit Barbados. We have to take into consideration resilience and the environment: climate, the soils and so on. So we need to look at training persons in these additional areas,” he explained.

Crop production field demonstrator Kyona Holder outlined what participants achieved during the summer. “Students learnt the fundamentals of crop production, such as planting, fertilisation and maintenance, and they were assessed on each of the modules,” she said.

Budder and grafter at the Soil Conservation Unit Leslie Skeete showing students the various stages of a grafted plant.

Friday’s open day featured student-led field tours, drone demonstrations, soil testing, and budding and grafting techniques taught by the Soil Conservation Unit.

Holder emphasised that a wider aim was to show students that agriculture offers career opportunities beyond manual labour.

“This whole programme was ready for them to at least see how agriculture is really done the correct way… and the different jobs that they can acquire in the agricultural sector,” she said.

Glean called for stronger partnerships with schools and the media to attract greater numbers.

“We want young people to recognise they can actually build careers and viable businesses that can be sustained in agriculture. The island’s future food security depends on it,” he said. sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb