Due to the cause of climate change, St. Lucia is now facing higher threats to hurricane more than ever before. Over the past five years, St. Lucia has experienced three extreme weather conditions, hurricane Matthew, tropical storm Kirk, and hurricane Elsa. All of them have caused severe damage to the livelihood of St. Lucian farmers.
To mitigate the harm led by adverse weather conditions, The Taiwan Technical Mission and the Banana Productivity Improvement Project (BPIP) launched a Building Resilience Programme to assist farmers to increase their resilience against threatening weather conditions. Tree crops including mango, cocoa, avocado, or lemon plants were presented to farmers and were planted to establish wind barriers, buffer zones, to protect the farms and improve soil and water conservation. At the same time, farmers benefited by gaining extra income from the tree crops, biodiversity in the fields was increased, and the risk of single cropping was diversified.
Two Building Resilience tree crop presentations were held at Union and La Caye on October 20th and 28th. Farmers in agricultural region 2, 3, 7, and 8 attended the presentation and gave a vote of thanks to the Taiwanese government and the BPIP. Tree crop plants for other agricultural regions are still being prepared by the Plant Propagation Nursery. Farmers will be informed when the plants are ready.
To date, more than 5,500 plants were planted. Over 300 acres of banana fields was covered by the Building Resilience Programme. By the time the next hurricane hits St. Lucia, livelihoods will be protected and less damage is expected.