Forty participants from public and private sector from five Caribbean countries increased their technical capacity to help improve the quality of soils, thanks to a training course held in Jamaica with the objective of promoting sustainable land use for the better adaptation to climate change of agriculture sector. The course, organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), allowed participants from Jamaica, Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname and Guyana to review some basic concepts on this matter. They also identified sustainable practices and technologies for soil management, agricultural productivity and climate change and learned how to implement remediation and reclamation processes in degraded land. “The soil is the sustainer of life on this planet and it is our responsibility to sustainably manage the land and the soil, we owe it to our children and those behind us to ensure that land is in a better state than we found it. The use of organic matter to remediate degraded soils is part of our toolbox to reverse the soil degradation trends”, said the IICA representative in Haiti, Abimbola Abiola. Soil degradation is a phenomenon that reduces the soil’s capability to provide sustainable environmental services. Human activities and impact of the climate affects its properties such as depth, organic matter content, pH, salinity and fertility. It also suffers alterations when subjected to exploitation, for instance, lands utilized for agriculture or mining with improper management practices. The use of unsustainable agricultural practices can cause erosion, sedimentation in rivers, exhaustion and degradation of water sources, loss of native vegetative cover and biodiversity, all of which represent higher vulnerability to climate change and a reduced capacity to produce agricultural commodities and services. This context explains the high importance of developing capacities on this matter. 2 “The impacts can be lessened with the use of sustainable land management approaches or soil management strategies that could maintain ecological resilience, steady ecosystem services, sustenance of microbial, vegetative and animal life, increase vegetation cover, increase organic matter and increase carbon sequestration, among others”, explained IICA’s agribusiness specialist in Jamaica, Ainsworth Riley. According to Gaius Eudoxie, one of the lecturers from University of West Indies, small islands in the Caribbean have small masses of arable land and the several uses complicate the production for food security. “The main interest is to direct efforts to improve lands, put back land, avoid deterioration of soils that can become deserts, promote ecological services, minimize pollution and enjoy the esthetics”, he stated. Eudoxie also explained that the impacts can be mitigated by remediating soils to be more resistant and resilient to climate change. The course highlighted the importance of soil organic matter and organic inputs for soil recovery. “The increase of organic matter is part of the general principles for soil management and the use of added input such as decomposing plants can provide nutrients to the soil in an agile way or simply protect and cover it from climate conditions”, stated the IICA specialist on competitivity and productivity, Karen Montiel. “Organic matter helps to recover dry soils resulting in a productivity that is much higher than using conventional practices. I incorporate charcoal and manure to the soil and the result in terms of response of plants to growth and pest control is very good”, said Gregg Skepple a Private Farmer from Antigua and Barbuda. The course, composed by three modules, lasted four days and included a field trip were participants applied the concepts addressed. It is expected that, with this initiative, participants can sensitize other actors of the issues addressed and promote processes of diffusion of innovations and good practices in their respective countries. Positive changes There are experiences in the Caribbean countries, such as, Dominican Republic and Suriname, where soils were degraded due to gold mining pollution and bauxite mine. In these cases, heavy metal toxicity in the soil impacted its fertility for agricultural purposes. Strategies were implemented to improve the quality of soil and its resilience to climate change, some of them were: add of organic matter amendment added, nutrient amelioration, growing grass species, vegetation and biodiversity enhance (native species) and use of tillage or physical barriers from water and wind.
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