CLARENDON, Jamaica — Over 300 farmers from nine communities in Clarendon have increased their awareness of climate change and its effects on agriculture.

Many are now diversifying their crop production to ensure greater responsiveness to climate impacts and disaster risk, according to the Environmental Health Foundation (EHF) which is implementing the “Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change while Reducing Disaster Risk” project in Peckham and surrounding Clarendon communities.

The project is funded by the Caribbean Development Bank through the Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (CDRRF) the EHF said in a statement.

“The project aims to build the farmers resilience to the various climate impacts that affect their livelihoods – so that they can transform and adapt using new agricultural practices,” said the project’s manager, Faradaine Forbes-Edwards.

The farmers, who are from Peckham, Tweedside, Sanguinetti, Grantham, Johns Hall, Morgan’s Forest, Silent Hill, Top Alston and Frankfield communities, are working to increase their climate and disaster resilience.

“We want to ensure that their levels of losses are reduced so when we get long droughts or hurricanes they can cope better than they are coping now,” said Forbes-Edwards.

She added that part of that preparation was getting the farmers to use new techniques [climate smart agricultural practices] and advanced technologies to enhance their resilience to climate change impacts. In a bid to do this, the project has had 49 training sessions addressing various agricultural best practices such as post-harvest and marketing strategies, small-scale poultry management, land husbandry, and farm business management.

“The EHF project introduced the Up-lifter (sweet potato) to the target communities.  “Before the project they usually planted the Quarter million variety. The Uplifter sweet potato spreads a lot and protects the soil – within 10 weeks of planting it covers all the soil. The tubers are nice and hard and it is the export friendly variety, smooth on the outside and yellow inside,” explained Ruth Simpson, agricultural specialist with the project.

The Up-lifter sweet potato does not take a lot of water to grow and is regarded as a more climate resilient crop. The farmers however have had to contend with pests such as the sweet potato weevil.

“The sweet potato weevil is devastating so we set up a pheromone trap for them. It has worked well here. One trap will work for one acre and lasts for three-and-a-half to four months,” said Simpson.

The community, which normally plants ginger, yam, banana, citrus among other crops, has also started using pineapples. According to Simpson, farmers in Maroon Town came up with the Bullhead pineapple – a mix between the Ripley and the Cowboy varieties – which is now being used in the community.

“It gives more suckers and it uses less water. It produces way more suckers than other pines. The average size is about 4-5 pounds. Pineapple is a drought resilient crop and if you plant it right – it’s an excellent soil erosion control measure,” she explained.

The pineapple is also used as a live barrier to help the farmers manage soil erosion in the communities.

The project, which runs until December 2019, has also re-established in some cases and strengthened in others nine farmer groups in the target communities. The groups are responsible for helping to sustain the climate smart agricultural practices as well as build the farmers capacities to manage their farms.

“The project has been a welcome change to the community. Our yields have increased after the soil tests and the training to help us with how to manage the soil. We are doing things differently and things are looking up,” said one farmer who is a beneficiary of the project.