The dual isle of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is an oil and gasoline financial system, which means that it depends on its pure sources and a worthwhile vitality sector for financial improvement.
It additionally implies that it’s susceptible to financial fragility, which — coupled with restricted arable land — has led the federal government to pursue a blue financial system, which promotes the event of marine sources, over an eco-friendly inexperienced financial system (
These sustainability hurdles, together with giant emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases from the oil and gasoline sector, have stored T&T rating center of the highway or poor on Yale’s Environmental Efficiency Index (EPI) for local weather change (2, 3).
Sustainability on this Caribbean nation is underdeveloped however being propelled by collaborative non-public and public sector efforts, with a main deal with agriculture.
Listed below are 5 organizations and farms main sustainability efforts in Trinidad and Tobago.
Founder and CEO of the nonprofit group WhyFarm, Alpha Sennon is a self-styled “agri-entrepreneur” in Trinidad and Tobago. He’s additionally an Ashoka Fellow and a recipient of the CEMEX-TEC award.
Ashoka is a corporation that connects and helps the world’s main social entrepreneurs and change-makers, whereas CEMEX-TEC is a extremely aggressive worldwide award that gives grants and seed capital to main social entrepreneurs.
Agri-entertainment and training
WhyFarm’s catchphrase — “Plant one tree and eat free of charge” — says all of it.
Certainly one of WhyFarm’s targets is to have interaction younger folks and maintain the agricultural sector by the continuity of generations of farmers who will institute sustainable agricultural practices.
“WhyFarm is a catalyst for inspiration within the agricultural sector and encourages residents to make modifications to eat native and assist native farmers,” says Sennon.
His workforce created AGRIman, the world’s first meals safety and diet superhero, and focuses on instructional campaigns and “agri-entertainment,” which mixes catchy taglines and graphics to creatively interact younger folks and policymakers alike.
WhyFarm makes use of a mixture of conventional farming methods and hydroponic methods for a number of of its initiatives.
One such challenge is a primary of its form in T&T. The Culinary Medicine Food Park is situated within the San Fernando Normal Hospital and grows meals by way of a hydroponic backyard to enrich the hospital’s menu and cut back its meals invoice.
Moreover, WhyFarm’s Grown in East Port of Spain is a group backyard and collaborative challenge funded by the United Nations Improvement Program (UNDP) that teaches group members dwelling gardening and agricultural entrepreneurship.
Alongside the org’s “Faculty of AgriCOOLture,” it has helped kick-start many faculty gardens to show primary farming methods on the primary-school stage.
WhyFarm has now expanded into Haiti, Rwanda, and Zambia.
Abstract
WhyFarm is a nonprofit, award-winning group that focuses on training and “agri-entertainment” to advertise sustainable agriculture and a thriving agricultural sector in Trinidad and Tobago.
Boissierre Greens Earthworm Farm is a sustainable agricultural follow in Gran Couva, Trinidad and Tobago, run by Dexter Ragoonanan.
Exploring vermiculture
Vermiculture, additionally referred to as vermicomposting, is an agricultural follow and natural waste administration approach that makes use of earthworms to supply top quality fertilizer (
The earthworms feed on natural waste, equivalent to vegetable peels, backyard trimmings, animal manure, and a few sorts of paper, and produce casts (poop) which have a excessive mineral content material and are used to fertilize crops.
Ragoonanan has designed bins appropriate for home composting. Worm castings produced on his farm can be found for buy.
Moreover, his firm collaborates on recycling and natural waste administration initiatives, very similar to the Tobago Recycling Resource Initiative, which inspires folks to make use of marked recycling bins for plastics, aluminum, meals containers, and cardboard.
Abstract
Boissierre Greens Earthworm Farm makes use of vermiculture to supply top quality, natural fertilizers that maintain plant progress. This farm additionally promotes recycling efforts throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
Established in 1990 by Ramgopaul and Beena Roop, Rocrops Agrotec is a small, family-owned farm that’s main the agroecological motion in Trinidad and Tobago.
What’s agroecology?
Agroecology is a kind of farming follow that mixes the sciences of agronomy — the examine of soil administration and crop manufacturing — and ecology — the connection between residing organisms and their surroundings (
The farm was constructed on a former sugarcane plantation, and its homeowners rehabilitated the degraded, acidic soils by methods like fertigation, which distributes exact quantities of water and fertilizers to keep away from extreme use (
Moreover, the farm makes use of the fragrant weed lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) as a deterrent for the expansion of different weeds with out using herbicides. Lemongrass additionally has many potential well being advantages (
This rehabilitation has facilitated the expansion of greens, herbs, tropical fruits, and citrus fruits like limes. The farm produces top quality, pesticide-free crops all year long.
This model of farming depends on the biodiversity of the pure ecosystem to assist agricultural manufacturing. It’s a possible mannequin to enhance public well being by way of elevated and dependable entry to nutritious, native meals (
As such, Rocrops Agrotec is environmentally pleasant and a mannequin for agroecology as a sustainable follow that’s additionally economically sound.
Abstract
Rocrops Agrotec is a family-owned farm that makes use of agroecological methods to supply top quality, pesticide-free crops from former sugarcane fields broken by years of overuse.
Green Age Farms is an award-winning start-up and vertical hydroponics farming system established by Kevin Singh and Faariah Khan-Singh.
What’s vertical hydroponic farming?
Vertical farming is a climate-controlled agricultural system that promotes sustainability by using vertical areas — reasonably than giant acreage — to develop crops, thus lowering the land required for crop manufacturing (
For instance, these hydroponic methods have been set up in small spaces inside houses, yard gardens, classroom gardens, and greenhouses.
Inexperienced Age Farms makes use of a drip hydroponics system — a well-liked approach that makes use of mineral options as an alternative of soil — to yield excessive crop outputs.
This farm additionally makes use of stackable pots for vertical farming, in addition to provides and installs vertical hydroponics methods and greenhouse provides to each small-scale and industrial farms, popularizing these sustainable strategies throughout the nation.
Abstract
Inexperienced Age Farms is a hydroponics firm that’s diversifying T&T’s sustainable agricultural sector by resource-efficient vertical farming for each small-scale and industrial farms.
Nourish TT was based by a gaggle of Trinidadians with a shared imaginative and prescient to scale back meals waste and alleviate starvation in Trinidad and Tobago.
Based on the World Financial institution, as much as one-third of world meals processed for human consumption is wasted or misplaced, and the 2021 United Nations’ meals waste report indicated that 61% of food waste comes from households (12, 13).
In Trinidad and Tobago, practically 7.5% of the inhabitants is undernourished, and it’s estimated that over 100,000 tons (100 million kg) of family meals waste happens every year (13, 14).
Managing meals waste
Nourish TT fills the hole between the excessive charges of starvation and meals waste by connecting corporations with surplus meals to charities in underserved communities by way of its app. This manner, good meals that might have been thrown away is made accessible to those that want it most.
Along with fruits, greens, and meats — both contemporary, dried, or canned — Nourish TT distributes packages with primary dwelling, child, and pharmaceutical necessities.
Up to now, this group has donated over 250,000 meals and strives to evolve meals waste administration in Trinidad and Tobago to scale back starvation.
Abstract
Nourish TT is redefining meals waste administration in Trinidad and Tobago by connecting underserved communities to sources of surplus meals, thus lowering starvation.
Agricultural sustainability in Trinidad and Tobago is in its developmental phases.
Nonetheless, due to the work of a number of nonprofits and corporations, many Trinbagonians are working to advertise vertical farming, cut back meals waste, assist hydroponic rising, and make the most of different strategies to attach folks to the land they dwell on and the meals they eat.
All of those efforts are pivoting Trinidad and Tobago towards a way forward for sustainability with a deal with agricultural development.
