By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
August 23, 2022
Its no doubt that climate change has been impacting food production around the world, but measuring just how much it affects produce output and ways in which farmers can mitigate these changes are just some of the areas the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, FAO, is tackling through one of its projects on the island of Tobago.
Since January 2020, the FAO commenced the project “Improve the monitoring system for climate change impacts on the agriculture sector in Trinidad and Tobago”, which is also part of readiness activities for accessing Green Climate Fund (GCF) resources for addressing climate change.
With it now in its final leg, the FAO along with the government’s Planning and Development Ministry, handed over five tablet computers to Tobago’s Division of Food Security, Natural Resources, the Environment and Sustainable Development for the continued collection of data.
According to the FAO, gathering of critical baseline data and information will be “useful for future decision-making on climate change priorities in the agriculture sector and therefore, provides a basis for concept note and proposal development for climate change actions”.
By doing this, the FAO says it ensures the sustainability of the initiative in the collection of timely and accurate data. FAO Representative (Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname) Reuben Robertson noted that effective planning requires valid data and the new digital tools are enablers to strengthen the process.
Key objectives of this readiness project has been set at developing a framework for the collection and analysis of agricultural and associated activity data – including hydrological and meteorological data, and to build the capacity of key stakeholders to use agricultural, hydrological and meteorological data to improve resilience to climate change, through the development of a database with mobile data collection capability.
It is expected that the ArcGIS database system will also be launched soon, which allows for the storage and analysis of climate and agriculture data. The webpage will present available data to all stakeholders including farmers and nongovernmental organizations, and as for the field data collection, paper-based forms have been converted to digital forms in KoBoToolbox. Using the forms on Tablets, mobile data collection on farmers, crop/livestock production and prices can be accomplished easily and uploaded into a database.
Part of the project includes two Data Collectors who were hired to assist with data collection over the next few months in Tobago, while it is expected that a two-day training session will be conducted with Agriculture Officers, Extension Officers and Data Collectors to ensure knowledge transfer. The Ministry of Planning and Development is the chief implementer of the project and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO/UN) is the Delivery Partner (DP), other key project partners include the local Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries; the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (NAMDEVCO), the Tobago House of Assembly (THA); the Water Resources Agency (WRA); the Meteorological Service of Trinidad and Tobago (TTMS) and the Central Statistical Office (CSO).