Workshop 3: The Agriculture Nutrition Nexus and the Way Forward at The Caribbean-Pacific Agri-Food Forum 2015 (CPAF2015) taking place 2-6 November in Barbados with support from the Intra-ACP Agricultural Policy programme, organized in partnership with the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). http://www.cta.int/en/news/caribbean-pacific-agri-food-forum.html

1. Lessons Learned: Testing a Farm to Fork Model in
the Caribbean
Isabella Francis-Granderson, PhD., RD
Faculty of Food and Agriculture,
The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
November 02 – 04, 2015

2.  Background
 Research Goals
 Methods
 Farm to Fork Model
 Achievements
 Lessons Learned
 Challenges
 Knowledge & Policy Uptake
 Conceptual Framework for Agricultural Development and Food & Nutrition
Security
 Acknowledgements
Outline

3. Trinidad and Tobago
Guyana
St. Lucia
St. Kitts and Nevis
15 CARICOM Countries

4. Overweight and Obesity in the Caribbean in > 30 years old
23
16
25
7 8
20
16 15
14 12 11 10 10
1
57
55 54
46
43
34
30 29
27
25 24 23 22
19
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Barbados
TrinidadandTobago
Dominica
Jamaica
SaintLucia
Bahamas
SaintKittsandNevis
AntiguaandBarbuda
Grenada
SaintVincentandthe
Grenadines
Belize
Suriname
Guyana
Haiti
PrevalenceofObesity
Males
Females
Source: J. R. Deep Ford 2013; FAO

5. • CARICOM Food Insecurity has taken the form of overweight & obesity
• Obesity is high risk factor in NCDs, costing CARICOM 5-8% of GDP
• Obesity , especially women, is rapidly increasing, and on the rise among children
• Obesity is linked to low consumption of fruits & vegetables, high intakes of fats,
oils and sugar- Poor consumer food choices and lifestyles;
• High food import bill (US $5 bil/yr) – energy- dense food types
• Institutional and market constraints on domestic production of nutritious food
• Seasonality in crop and livestock productivity , floods and droughts
• Limited Institutional Capacity ; Policy decisions; Community & personal actions
Problem Statement and Challenges : Food
Insecurity in CARICOM

6. • Improve nutrition & health outcomes of CARICOM populations through availability
of foods that would increase intake of vegetables & fruits, decrease caloric intake,
and increase micronutrient intake;
• Develop food production systems based on agricultural diversification, water
conservation & efficient use of land;
• Build and test a Farm to Fork Model for CARICOM food and nutrition security;
• Expand and build human and institutional capacity to solve problems of food and
nutrition insecurity in CARICOM;
• Understand constraints to, and accelerate the rate of technology adoption by small
farmers;
• Adapt international standards of food safety and quality for a healthy, market-
oriented food supply chain;
Project Goals

7. From Farm
To Fork
Socio-Economic Studies
 Consumer and Farmer Household Surveys
 Focus groups on innovation & technology adoption
Environmental
Management
Gender Consideration
…and beyond
Water and Land Resources
 Drip Irrigation, Water and Soil Conservation
 Protected Agriculture
 Open Field Crop Diversification
 Silage conservation for Small Ruminants
Market access
 Post-Harvest Loss Management
 Food Safety and Quality
Community Nutrition and Health
 Improving the quality of School Meals
 Nutrition Education
 Consumer food choices
Policy Changes for Sustained
Food Security in CARICOM
Farm to Fork: Impact pathway

8. • Food matters in prevention of obesity and overweight
• Consumption of adequate level of fruit and vegetable plays a role in weight
control
• Targeting School feeding programmes and children for healthy eating is a useful
strategy to improve regional food and nutrition security
• Linking small holder farmers to school feeding programmes promotes agricultural
and market development and enhances community nutrition and health
outcomes
• CARICOM Governments, private sector and “community actors” will support
development of local farming and child nutrition programmes
• Development of a “home-grown school feeding as a farm to fork model has
national and regional utility and will garner support among policy makers
Model Assumptions

9.  Collective
action
 Innovation
 Technology
adoption
 Social
capital
 Policy
Farm to Fork Model
for CARICOM Food & Nutrition Security

10. 1. CARICOM project: First in CARICOM to adopt a multi-sectoral
approach to generating an integrated package of scientific
evidence for solutions to food and nutrition insecurity.
2. Preconditions for model adoption:
– Equipping small holder farmers with sustainable agricultural technologies and
technology uptake by farmers;
– Strengthening markets & mechanisms for produce procurement for school feeding;
– Investments in and strengthening School Feeding Programmes and Policy
– Acceleration of technical and institutional capacity
– Need for collective action and Knowledge flows among Institutions, policy makers,
community and stakeholders
Comments and Preconditions for
successful farm to fork model

11. • Institutional and human capacity building
Over 2,000 participants gained skills in drip irrigation, protected agriculture, forage conservation
and catering. This led to a 32% increase in the cropping area under drip irrigation and a six-fold
expansion in the area used for cultivating fodder crops.
In St. Kitts: Ministries of agriculture, health and education joined in an integrated effort and formalized,
a ministerial memorandum of understanding, to tackle childhood obesity. This includes early nutrition
interventions in schools and policy that links healthy eating in schools to produce procurement from
local farmers.
• Partnerships: national, regional and international level.
- Collaboration with local ministries of agriculture, health and education, and with support from other
institutional partners in four CARICOM countries (St Kitts-Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and St
Lucia).
- The National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) in Guyana and McGill University led
to the water balance model for more efficient use of water resources for crop production.
- The Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Ross University School of
Veterinary Medicine in St Kitts-Nevis, the Ministry of Agriculture of St Kitts-Nevis, and McGill
University, on small ruminant productivity . The formation of the Small Ruminant Farmers’
Association.
Major Achievements

12. • Agricultural technology and innovation:
- Collaborative arrangements between farmers in St Kitts-Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago and the
school lunch programs in both countries, related to support for improved agricultural
technologies to increase year-round productivity and diversity of farmers’ produce.
Over a two-year period, with the introduction of drip irrigation on selected crops:
tomato yields increased from 18 to 32 tons/ha, pumpkin from 17 to 25 tons/ha and
string beans from 3 to 10 tons/ha.
- The application of the computer simulation soil-water balance model, McGill-IRRIMOD© ,
enabled farmers to irrigate according to crop requirements. Facilitated irrigation scheduling
and identified an irrigation treatment to water requirement for vegetables, with 20% increase
in water use efficiency (St. Kitts and Guyana).
Major Achievements

13. Major Achievements
• School feeding
- Increase local food diversity in school lunches
Quantities of fruit and vegetables served in the Farm to Fork schools were 10 times greater
than in non-participating schools.
In St Kitts-Nevis, in addition to pumpkin, onions and Irish potatoes into school lunches; 11 different
fruit and vegetables were added including tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, string beans, cabbage,
cucumber and watermelon.
In Trinidad, local fruits such as watermelon, tangerines and bananas were added.
An acceptability survey showed the proportion of children accepting fruit and
vegetables ranged from 34% for carrots and 70% for tomatoes to 85% for watermelon
- Improved nutrition knowledge
Changes in nutrition knowledge for children indicated a higher level of knowledge among
the group that received both nutrition education and menu changes compared to those in
control schools. This suggests that changes to the school lunch menu alone do not improve
nutrition knowledge but must be offered in conjunction with relevant nutrition education

14. • New markets for farm produce can play an important role in
encouraging more farmers to produce a variety of foods.
• Ongoing collaboration between school meal programs and farmers are
needed
• Labour-saving devices are needed in the food production centers in order
to increase the use of local foods as more processing is involved in such
activities as making juices from local fruits, etc.
• Through collaborative efforts with many partners, one can successfully
feed children more fruits and vegetables and increase local food
production through efforts to buy locally
Lessons Learnt

15. • As farmers produce more food for the schools, this opens up other markets and can
cause price competition, increasing prices resulting in a greater inducement to grow
more produce.
• There is a role for education in nutrition as it helps increase food acceptance among
children. Education of those who prepare to make palatable meals and understand the
importance of good nutrition to health is essential.
• For school meals program there is a role for each of the Ministries: Health, Education
and Agriculture to play.
The Ministry of Health has a role in food inspection and providing healthier
environments to reduce the risk of obesity and NCDs.
School policies are needed to help create a healthy food environment for children. As
with tobacco control, environmental changes can have an impact on diet.
Lessons Learnt

16. • The Ministry of Education has the lead role in offering a healthy meal and food
environment. Good nutrition is important for optimal school performance . In
addition, children can get an opportunity to learn about food, agriculture and health.
- Incorporating nutrition education within the curriculum at all levels of all primary
and secondary schools and teacher education institutions should be prioritized.
• For the Ministry of Agriculture, implement measures to strengthen the agricultural
sector to ensure that there is a sustainable supply and consumption of locally
produced fruits and vegetables and better marketing of local produce.
- The School is one market but in increasing production can lead to other markets
such as hospitals and prisons as well as the tourism sector.
• These Ministries do not traditionally come together over the school lunch; however,
working in concert they saw the real advantages of supporting the provision of local
produce for schoolchildren to increase health, school performance and domestic food
production.
Lessons Learnt

17. • Partnership arrangements/building: administrative delays in negotiating and finalizing
partnership agreements.
• Identifying proven partnerships and working with applicant researchers that have established and
proven working relationships, prior to the start of the project
• Stakeholder engagement obtaining cooperation from farmers to provide information about
produce sales to school lunch programmes, This slowed progress with the mapping of the food
value chain.
• In St Kitts, low levels of farmer participation influenced the quantity of data collected for the on-
farm experiment with small ruminants.
• In Trinidad, very few farmers participated in the protected agriculture trials. This was mainly due
farmers’ perception of a high cost of this type of involvement in on-farm research; also, for bio-
security reasons, many greenhouse producers were reluctant to allow UWI researchers to enter
their structures.
• Poor parent participation in nutrition education sessions
• Coordination and communications: less than optimal communication among project
researchers, project and local agricultural extension staff and farmers. Impacted timely sharing of
knowledge with farmers and other stakeholders. For example, the results of technologies
undertaken by the project on farmers’ plots did not always reach farmers in a timely manner.
Challenges

18. Knowledge and Policy Uptake
• Knowledge &k
The Way Forward

19. • Collaboration among the ministries of Education, Agriculture and Health are needed to develop
and implement a comprehensive framework for promoting healthy school environments with a
particular emphasis on nutritious school lunches (meals). Each Ministry has a key role:
• In developing a school meal policy and support for Caribbean schools based on
• Use of local fruits and vegetables in appropriate levels in a manner appealing to
children.
• Supply 1/3 of daily intake of nutrients
• Ensuring limited sugar and sodium
• The limiting of other foods sold in and immediately around schools (Competitive foods)
to improve nutrition and ensure food safety.
• In providing more opportunities for physical activity in the schools.
• In supporting diverse agricultural production to fulfill the school meal needs and promoting
school meals as a new market for farmers to increase their sales.
• In providing training to teachers and food vendors on healthy food environments
Knowledge & Policy Uptake

20. • In considering expansion of healthy school meals to other children on a cost recovery basis in Trinidad
where not all children receive the school meals, and children are currently buying non-nutritious
meals/snacks at school.
• Ministry of Education • Commission nutritional evaluations of school meals and seek
recommendations for healthier meals that are accepted by children.
Integrate education on food and health into existing school curricula in primary and secondary
schools.
• Ministry of Agriculture: Develop community-based smallholder farmer lusters to meet the
demands of school meal programs for volume, quality and consistency in supply of fruit and
vegetables.
Provide increased technical and non-technical support to producer groups to meet
jointly established production targets throughout the different seasons.
– Strengthen local farmer groups and farming support systems
– Revise incentive programs to enhance production
– Implement procurement of local foods by public institutions
– Promote consumption of locally produced foods at national level
– Enhance research efforts for increased production of fruit and vegetables
Knowledge & Policy Uptake

21. • Ministry of Health : Support the development of specific school feeding guidelines
to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, meet micronutrient needs and decrease
the use of sweet drinks and high salt/saturated fat meals.
Conduct regular in-service training for health professionals on healthy local food to increase
acceptability of national guidelines.
Knowledge & Policy Uptake

22. Steady supply of
nutritious produce
Training of personnel
Record keeping
Institutional
support &
Food procurement
policy
Food safety
inspection
Curtailment of sugary
drinks & school
vendors
Improved farmer
livelihood
Community food &
nutrition security
CONCEPTUAL FRAME FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD
& NUTRITION SECURITY
School menu
cost efficiency
Community health &
development
School
Feeding &
Market
Development
Input Input Outcomes

23. Funding for this project was provided by The Canadian International Food Security Research
Fund (CIFSRF) a program of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD).
We acknowledge the enormous support and contribution for the institutional partners and
personnel in Guyana, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago
Special appreciation is expressed to Dr. Leroy Phillip, PI and all other Project Team members
and Project Partners for their contributions to the project (McGill U, UG, UWI).
Project websites: https://www.caricomfoodsecurity.com
https://www.mcgill.ca/globalfoodsecurity/research-initiatives/caricom-project
Acknowledgments

24. THANK YOU
CARICOM Project websites:
https://www.caricomfoodsecurity.com
www.mcgill.ca/globalfoodsecurity/research-initiatives/caricom-project