00:05good evening passengers I am Nicole M Romany and welcome aboard your favorite airline I hope you
00:11have your boarding passes and your passports ready tonight we leave Trinidad and Tobago for
00:16another journey across the Caribbean one island one story one people at a time today we're heading
00:24to the British Virgin Islands the earth is getting hotter rainfall is becoming less predictable drought
00:33is putting pressure on farms and across the Caribbean food security is becoming a question
00:38that can no longer be left to the next harvest but in the British Virgin Islands there is a twist
00:45the drought may be the headline but the bigger vulnerability has been there all along the British
00:52Virgin Islands produces only a fraction of the food it eats and that changes the economics of a dry
00:59spell because when roughly nine out of every ten meals begin somewhere else what happens in the
01:07fields at home is only one piece of the equation speaking with wider region economist professor
01:15Everson Benjamin of the British Virgin Islands explains why the drought itself is not necessarily what drives
01:21the biggest the biggest pressure on food prices the drought in itself has not really exacerbated the
01:30problem problem because BVI has a heavy reliance on import perhaps about 90 94 percent of the food in the
01:42BVI
01:42BVI is imported and about 6 percent is got to local farming so the question is that how fast really
01:55but how much can the BVI mitigate against the import now increasing local production would of course help but that
02:06won't necessarily materialize in the short term
02:10that 94 percent changes the conversation because food security is not simply about whether food exists
02:17it is whether people can afford it and for a territory exposed to global food prices shipping disruptions and extreme
02:25weather even a small kitchen garden can become part of a much bigger economic story
02:31professor Benjamin says the answer may begin surprisingly close to home
02:36people who have a little bit of land
02:38or even on the they can institute these are what you call them on their porches
02:45plants plant pots where you could plant little things like tomatoes vegetables all these little things help because everybody talks
02:55about food security which is the underlying issue
02:57but food security but food security goes beyond the availability of food one of the problems facing the BVI is
03:08higher prices and if people can't afford to buy food they are in fact suffering from food insecurity
03:17but growing more food is not as simple as putting a seed in the ground the BVI has limited arable
03:24land water is a challenge and hurricanes have already erased some of the infrastructure that could have helped the territory
03:32grow more of what it eats
03:34there is there is a striking reminder of that at parakeetabay once greenhouses provided a controlled environment where farmers could
03:44grow crops with greater consistency and yield then came hurricanes
03:49over and Maria the structures were destroyed and they have not ever returned for professor Benjamin rebuilding that agricultural foundation
03:59is part of preparing the BVI for the next shock
04:03One of the things that would help greatly and we had that here and they were destroyed by hurricane greenhouses
04:10we had some greenhouses here because that provides a nice controlled environment to grow certain crops and have great yield
04:18but the hurricanes hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed those and they haven't been rebuilt we haven't had anything since
04:29so these are also areas that they're looking at to have these things reinstituted and have a concerted effort to
04:38address these issues
04:39the drought will pass the heat will eventually ease but for the British Virgin Islands this isn't just a story
04:48about drought or agriculture
04:49it is a story about what every island is trying to protect the ability to feed its people weather an
04:57uncertain climate and shape its own tomorrow
05:01as the sun sets on tonight's journey through the British Virgin Islands thank you for flying with us on wider
05:08region uncovering the stories
05:10people culture and conversations shaping our region I am Nicole M Romany join us next Friday as we journey to
05:18another destination across the Caribbean until then safe travels
Comments