Empty buckets, parched lands and pipes belching air: It’s a farmer’s nightmare.

An ongoing drought has had Jamaican and regional farmers scratching their heads and readjusting their agricultural practices for weeks this year, while the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation had warned of water scarcity and drought four years prior.

Some farmers are still feeling the pinch, and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) says a drought can be “highly destructive”, while underscoring that it is now thought that climate change is fuelling a rise in the intensity and frequency of drought around the world.

Gerty’s Argo-Produce in New Hall District, Manchester, produces sweet potato, Irish potato, pepper, pumpkin, carrot, among other crops. Co-founder Citerina Atkins told the Jamaica Observer that in order to reduce water usage, she could not consider establishing new crops, and had to focus on keeping her current field going.

Atkins said that a drip irrigation system allowed her to irrigate crops with minimal water usage and even then, her tanks still went dry.

“The drought had a significant impact on my farming operations. I experienced lower crop yields due to the lack of rain and limited water supply. The size of my peppers reduced drastically and that affected my markets, which in turn had a big impact on my profit margins. I ultimately lost half acre of Scotch bonnet peppers due to the drought and I’m forced to start over,” she said.

“The drought not only affected my farming operations, but also had a ripple effect on other farmers in the vicinity. Many farmers faced crop failures, which resulted in reduced income and job losses. Additionally, the drought also affected the livestock farmers which impacted the entire agricultural sector,” she added.

In 2016, the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) put several Caribbean countries under an immediate drought watch. The situation was “a major concern” due to the “below-normal” rainfall recorded during the previous dry and wet seasons, putting human health and the environment at risk.

The countries included Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, northern Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and northern Suriname.

But Atkins referred to the drought as one of the worst she has seen in many years. “The lack of rainfall affected the entire island, and it was evident in the agricultural sector. Many farmers experienced significant crop losses. Emergency measures such as trucking water to affected communities were implemented to help to reduce the impact,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Atkins said several measures can be put in place to safeguard farmers against back-to-back dry periods, such as water harvesting and conservation, where farmers collect and store rainwater during the wet seasons for use during dry periods and use drip irrigation and mulching to help reduce water usage.

“Another measure would be crop diversification in which farmers diversify their crops to reduce their reliance on crops that are more susceptible to drought. By planting a mix of drought-resistant crops, they can reduce their risk of crop loss during dry periods and finally increase access to crop insurance to provide financial protection against crop losses,” Atkins went on.

In February, the National Water Commission (NWC) said a continued decline in inflows to surface water sources across the island, due to the effects of drought conditions, had forced the disruption of water supply to a vast number of areas in the Corporate Area.

The NWC noted that the water levels at Hermitage Dam and Mona Reservoir in St Andrew were at 63.5 per cent and 76 per cent, respectively, and said the restrictions saw a 6:00 am and 6:00 pm, 6:00 pm to 6:00 am and a 6:00 am to 9:00 pm daily water supply schedule for residential areas and environs in the Corporate Area.

The Clucking Chicken Ja, located in Portmore, St Catherine, sells natural, farm-grown chickens. The business was also expanded to pig rearing.

Michael Mclish, the operator, said he has two water tanks with a capacity of 2,000 gallons and 20 plastic water barrels. Mclish told the Sunday Observer he sources water from a canal that flows from the Rio Cobre under the irrigation organisation and NWC water lines.

“I try my best to use the water in the drums and refill them every three days to keep clean water for the pigs drinking purposes. Once or twice weekly, the water supply will get low due to the direction it’s sent to as farmers can purchase water differently.”

Mclish noted that the last time he faced water-related issues was after the toxic spill from Windalco’s effluent holding pond into the Rio Cobre in July 2022.

“It’s not a natural drought, but the Windalco river spill caused the irrigation organisation to close the canal ways to let the waste water run off for almost a week and I was already running low on water and scheduled to pump water, then I was informed about the toxicity of the water in the canals,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“I have reduced the numbers of pigs now, so I am currently using less water, but the crop section on the farm requires more water to the selection of crops we are doing now which is sweet and regular corn, pumpkins and melons,” Mclish said.

The National Irrigation Commission Ltd (NIC) said Jamaica was “extremely vulnerable” to drought, with February to March and July to August usually being the driest periods. The commission said as a result, plans need to be put in place to mitigate the possible effects of drought.

Ainsworth Riley, the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) agri-business specialist in Jamaica, told the Sunday Observer that prolonged drought has resulted in a decline in crop yields per acre, leading to an overall decline in production.

“There is an increase in the cost of production because farmers have had to pay for water to be trucked to the farms. This has resulted in high prices for crops at the farm gate, municipal market and supermarkets. Consumers have to pay more, or buy less produce,” he said.

Riley said this may also result in the importation of certain produce if the condition persists.

“Similarly, limited access to water on livestock farms will place animals under heat stress. Those that graze in pastures may find a reduction in the quantity and quality of forages. Farmers will need to continuously improve their drought mitigation plans by increasing water harvesting and storage facilities. Every shed should have a guttering system connected to a storage tank or a lined pond to collect and store water.”

There is the need, Riley continued, to increase post harvest storage facilities, so that production may be maximised during the period of high levels of rainfall and stored in cold storage and slow released into the market.

“Livestock farmers should plant alternative forages such as gliricidia, moringa, trichantera and not just rely on the grasses. They should do more to make hay and or silage, which can be stored and fed to animals during dry periods. Farmers need to follow the bulletins and forecasting by the Jamaica Met Office so they plant according to when the rainwater is available,” Riley said.

Andrew Nelson, a pineapple farmer in Simon, Clarendon, pointed to losing crops during the drought. He said he quickly turned to catching and storing rainwater.

“I lost pine, but it’s just life. I have to just give thanks. They are still dying right now, coming out of the drought, and it looks like I am going to lose a lot,” he said.

“I just want water,” he stressed.

But even before this drought, Nelson has been crying for water.

“I don’t have any water for the pines… none at all. We don’t have any irrigation system on this side, and where I am, I don’t have any river on my side. So, I have to depend on the rainfall and work with what I have.”

Barbadian farmer Devane Toppin sources water from catchment wells. However, he said the impacts of the drought have been palpable. He cultivates onions, watermelons, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and okras.

“There is water in the well due to lots of rain from last year August. We were getting approximately six inches [of rain] every month from August to January. Rainfall at present is very low,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Toppin praised the Barbadian Government for the facility that he says safeguards farmers from major losses during lengthy, dry periods.

“It is a water well with an electric pump inside; resources provided by the Government of Barbados. It is a system that the government provides where instead of the average house water rate, we get get a reduced rate. You basically have the water there at your hand… not throughout the year, but you see the importance of it when there is a very dry period,” he said.

“You pay for that water… it is not free. It is $1 per cubic metre. But the rates are not as high as the average household water. And it is not water for drinking. It is just water to keep the plants.”

In March, the Barbados-based Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF) said the Pacific has transitioned out of La Niña and ocean temperatures around the Caribbean are expected to be close to average.

La Niña is characterised by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific, compared to El Niño, which is characterised by unusually warm ocean temperatures.

“This makes it difficult to forecast unusual climate conditions as the Caribbean transitions into the wet season,” CariCOF said in a newsletter.

It said nevertheless, long-term drought concerns are rising in parts of Cuba, while the effects of frequent dry spells across the Islands and Belize will likely continue, with a peak in wildfire potential and Saharan dust intrusions.