Climate resilient agriculture to enhance food security

Towards climate resilient agricultural to enhance food security in the Maldives islands.

Problem:

The Maldives is a chain of 1,190 small low-lying coral islands grouped into 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean. Although the total area of the country occupies 90,000km2 of the ocean, its land area is a tiny 300km2. The islands, of which only 186 are inhabited and over 100 house tourist resorts. The islands are extremely small, averaging 0.5km2 and are mainly coastal entities, and their ecosystems are among the world’s most vulnerable.

Tourism and fisheries represent the key economic sectors and together constitute up to 35 percent of GDP, more than two-thirds of export earnings, and employment for some 18 percent of the domestic labor force. Other sectors such as distribution and trade, construction, transportation and agriculture are closely linked to the performance of the tourism sector (DNP, 2010).

The agriculture in the Maldives is constrained by a narrow resource base including lack of cultivable land.  The contribution from the agriculture sector is significantly low, accounting for only 1.6% of GDP in 2014. The limited agriculture production leads to high dependency on imported food, affecting the food security of the country. 

Local agricultural produce is not widely available to the population dispersed across the country. Most of the residents’ resort to imported pre-packed food products including fruits and vegetables for consumption. It is imperative to introduce initiatives to start eco-gardens and to use produce from such gardens for consumption in-order to enhance food security in the islands.

Imported fertilisers, mainly cow dung imported from India is used by the farmers to grow crops. Extensive use of fertilizers and industrial chemical products used for agricultural purposes have deteriorated the soil and groundwater conditions in these islands. Ground water pollution from agricultural practices is one key issue that the island residents face as over 90% of the population rely on ground water to fulfil their non-potable water needs.

Solution:

The solution proposed is to implement a demonstration project that aims to lay the foundation for core/ key programs that could be replicated in other islands of the Maldives. The project would implement activities targeted to empower women and youth to play an active role in starting-up agricultural activities using innovative approaches such as vertical gardening and hydro-phonic systems.

Key areas to be addressed in the project are; (1) Facilitate training programs to lead the participants to plan and implement composting and eco-gardening programs (2), Provide training to develop a small business plan (3) provide aid to initiate a small business related to eco-gardening and healthier nutritional choices promotion and (4) Develop models for extension of the activities/ or programs.

How will the solution bring a change?

Information and results about the methods trial tested in the project will be shared widely. Some of these components would be the use of small land areas, use of locally made compost and use of rain water for agriculture. The economic impact will also be assessed and information shared with the public.

Vertical gardening or agriculture is a fairly new methodology to Maldivian farmers and gardeners. The project will demonstrate vertical gardening start-ups in balconies and terrace of high rise buildings.

Social media platforms will be used extensively to reach out to the wider audience. We would also use video calls using smart phones to link technical people based in Male’ with the project site farmers. This would assist in reducing the cost of travel of experts to the project site.

Support gardeners from two islands and aim to ensure that the production of at least two types of fruits/ or vegetables in these islands and to reduce the amount of imports of the locally produced products by at least 30%.

The project results will be shared widely with other island communities and technical assistance will be provided using social media and direct contact using smart phones.

The project will be implemented by Live and Learn Environmental Education (LLEE), Maldives. LLEE has a network of NGO’s, community groups and individuals in over 20 island communities they have worked with. Direct contact will be made with networks in the targeted island communities to plan and to seek implementation support for the activities.

We are currently working with our networks to initiate project implementation.

We expect to see results/ effects after implementing the project for over 12 months. We are at the planning stage of the project.

During the project period we aim to engage 15 to 20 farmers/ gardeners. Project results will be shared widely with the farming and gardening communities in the country.

-        Technical expertise in development, environment, community engagement, capacity building

-        Links with sector experts (agriculture)

We believe that Solve would be able to assist us get in touch with and network with other organizations with similar problems and solutions similar or related to ours. We look forward to working with the learning from experiences, challenges and success stories of other organizations, and countries.

In Maldives, agriculture is a very small industry and we lack persons with sufficient training, technical knowledge and skills about the new technologies and methodologies in the field. This would be one area that we would require assistance with.

Geographical dispersal of islands makes project work costly, so we would like Solve to support us in finding new and innovative technological solutions to bridge the gap between the project sites (3 remote islands) and Live and Learn (located in the capital city).