Food For You

FOOD FOR YOU
2022
Impact Area: Protect The Planet

In Trinidad and Tobago, over 85% of all food consumed is imported, while Agriculture contributes under 1% to our GDP. Such a heavy dependence on imports to meet the nutritional needs of the population exacerbates environmental, social and economic issues, both locally and on a global scale. Most recently, supply side shocks linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine has emphasised the vulnerability of global food systems.

Our hub hoped to tackle this issue by providing an educational program to raise awareness about food security, and to train farmers in methods of regenerative agriculture, in hopes that they will be able to produce more, by producing better.

Regenerative Agriculture is a series of holistic practices designed to create beneficial ecosystem impacts, such as carbon sequestration, improving watershed and soil health, and promoting habitat rich in biodiversity. By necessity, these activities must provide beneficial economic and social impacts for Farmers and local communities if they are to be sustainable over the long term.

With the support of the Climate Reality Project, and the local expertise of the team at Wa Samaki Ecosystems, 30 farmers, of diverse ages, experience levels and geographies, participated in a series of six workshops, covering the following topics:

Permaculture principles and design
Water management
Composting
Syntropy and Agroforestry
Business Planning and Access to Finance
Digital marketing and e-commerce

Participating farmers were able to take new theoretical and practical learnings back to their own farms and communities with the aims of improving land use and design, utilising the circular inputs of nature, improving soil health and increasing crop diversity. Most importantly, they were able to form a supportive network to continue assisting each other with further opportunities for learning.

Five of our participants were awarded microgrants to support their own projects employing the methods learned during this training program.

TRAILER VIDEO