Towards a ``Farm to Fork`` Model for Food and Nutrition Security in CARICOM Countries:

Home grown School feeding for children’s health through diet

quality and diet diversity, with menu cost efficiency

Leroy E. Phillip Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,

McGill University, Montreal, Canada Presented at the Annual Review and Planning Forum

Department of Agriculture , Conference Room LaGuerite St. Kitts

Feb 26, 2014 da

• 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 , heavy rains, floods and droughts

Problem Statement and Challenges : Food Insecurity in CARICOM

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

U$

Mill

ion

Year

TRENDS IN CARICOM AGRICULTURAL TRADE IN CROPS AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS 1990-2011

Total EXPORTS U$M Total IMPORTS U$M

Source: J. R. Deep Ford 2013; FAO

Food Availability in the Caribbean

FAO-CARICOM Food security Project Report 2007

Prevalence of Overwt / Obesity in the Caribbean in > 30 years old

23

16

25

7 8

2016 15 14 12 11 10 10

1

57 55 54

4643

3430 29 27 25 24 23 22

19

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Ba

rba

do

s

Trin

ida

d a

nd

To

ba

go

Do

min

ica

Jam

aic

a

Sa

int L

uci

a

Ba

ha

ma

s

Sa

int K

itts

an

d N

evi

s

An

tigu

a a

nd

Ba

rbu

da

Gre

na

da

Sa

int V

ince

nt a

nd

the

Gre

na

din

es Be

lize

Su

rina

me

Gu

yan

a

Ha

iti

Pre

vale

nce

of O

besi

ty

Males

Females

Source: J. R. Deep Ford 2013; FAO

0

5

10

15

Under Weight Over Weight

4

6

3

13

Per

cen

tage

Changes in Childhood (0-5yr) Underweight and

Overweight Status During a decade

20002010

Source: CFNI

• Improve nutrition & health outcomes of Children through school feeding to increase intake of

vegetables & fruits, control caloric intake, and increase micronutrient intake;

• Equip small holder farmers with sustainable technologies to improve agricultural productivity and diversity and water conservation

• Understand constraints to, and accelerate the rate of technology adoption by small farmers;

• Encourage market driven production system that improves food safety and post harvest quality along the supply chain;

• Build and test a Farm to Fork Model for CARICOM food and nutrition security;

• Expand and build human and institutional capacity to improve CARICOM food security

Project Goals

Agriculture Health

Policy instruments

Build partnerships

Knowledge generation

CHANGE

Framework for change

Effort

NCD’s

CIFSRF CARICOM Project: Contributions to Solutions

• Generate scientific and integrated knowledge and findings as a model to inform policy action

• Build regional, national and Canada- CARICOM partnerships for collective action

• Strengthen efforts in capacity building and ``research for development``

• Take a multi-sectoral approach to food and nutrition security linking agriculture, health and education

• Engage school feeding programs, small holder farmers and community actors as vehicles to effect change, market development & innovations for food security.

CIFSRF CARICOM project: contributions to Solutions

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

Children, Caregivers, Women, School Meals staff, Small holders farmers, Policy makers

Project Targets: “Community Change Agents”

Socio-economics & Behavior

-Innovations in farming systems -Social capital/Social learning

-Technology adoption -Market development

Agriculture Technology

-Productivity/availability -Diversity

-Sustainability

Community Nutrition & Health

-Obesity -Child nutrition & health

-School feeding -Food safety

Community & Market Development

Improved Livelihood

Policy & Institutions

Community

Actions

-Small farmers -Children -Women

Towards CARICOM Food & Nutrition Security

-Water & Land Resources

-Postharvest -Protected Agriculture

-Small Ruminant

Model Elements

School Feeding &

Market Development

Agricultural technology

Food procurement

Consumer Food choices

Improved farmer livelihood

Community food & nutrition security

CONCEPTUAL FRAME FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD & NUTRITION SECURITY

Community health & development

Policy Impact

• Equipping small holder farmers with sustainable agricultural technologies; technology adoption by farmers

• Strengthening markets & mechanisms for produce procurement

• Investments in and strengthening School Feeding Programmes

• Institutions, Knowledge flows, Social capital & policy incidence

• Acceleration of technical and institutional capacity

Preconditions for successful farm to fork model

Populating the model with experimental data:

• agricultural technology for crop productivity and diversity on small holder farms • Produce Procurement • School Lunch Feeding

• Institutions, Knowledge flows, Social capital & policy impact

• Capacity Building/gender equity /environmental sustainability

Research data collection for farm to fork model

Drip + mulching

Mulato grass conservation for small ruminants

Drip irrigation

Protected agriculture

Post-harvest loss measurement (Penetrometer)

Innovations: Technologies for diet diversity and quality

17.1

1.8

18.5

2.4

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

Tomato Red beans

tonn

e/ha

2012 Crop yield at Black Bush Polder (Guyana) project site

Not irrigated Irrigated

2.80

0.81 1.04

5.87

6.88

1.81

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

String Beans(Mansion)

Pumpkin(Stapleton)

Watermelon (Stapleton)

tonn

e/ha

2012/2013 Crop yield at St.Kitts project sites

Not Irrigated Irrigated

String beans

Tomatoes

Red beans

Bora

Eggplant

Cucumbers

Cabbage

Melons

Pumpkin

Watermelon

Achievement: Increased crop availability and diversity

Silage production for small ruminants

Small ruminant performance with Mulato grass silage on farms in St. Kitts

49

57

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Control (natural pasture) Natural pasture + Mulato grass silage

ADG

(g/d

ay)

Daily gain (96 d after weaning) of sheep supplemented with Mulato grass silage in St. Kitts.

Achievement: Post-harvest Losses Mapping for process control

Water sampling Water sampling

Laboratory analysis

Training and field measurements

Soil sampling

Environmental quality and food safety

Food Safety training

Populating the model with experimental data:

• Local produce procurement

Preconditions for successful farm to fork model

Extent of produce supplied by Local Farmers (Project and Non Project Farmer) in St. Kitts relative to School Meal Centre Needs -

2013 school year

Extent of supplied (%) 0-25 26-50 51-70 76-100 Surplus

Product January February March April May June September October November December

Tomato 26 19%

surplus 83%

surplus 0 0 17 57 43 53 36

Pumpkin 19 0 23 45 62 88 25 72 97 22

Cucumber 63 33%

surplus 25 0 30 73 14%

surplus 0 38 67

String Beans 43 33 41 8 33 20 15 0 53 70

Carrots 8 25 5% surplus 33 14%

surplus 92 0 0 0 86

Sweet Potato 73 0 33 0 19 35 19 58 59 0

White Potato 0 29 31 60 14 0 0 16 0 0

Cabbage 0 0 0 0 92 0 0 23 93 0

Watermelon 0 0 21 14 79 26 25 0 9 0

Cantaloupe 0 0 0 0 0 0 26 0 0 0

Banana 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 25 0

Other fruits 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 53 25

Mutton 0 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Roots – White potato, Sweet potato and Carrots; Vegetables – Tomato, Pumpkin, Cucumber, and Cabbage; Pulses – String beans; Fruits – Watermelon, Banana, Cantaloupe, Banana, Oranges, and Star fruit; Mutton

Proportion (%) of produce supplied to St. Kitts School Meals Centre (SMC) by local farmers ("project" and non-project farmers ) in relation to SMC needs- 2013 school

year

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

ALL YEAR

11

43

29

45

2

% o

f Pro

duce

supp

lied

Fruits Vegetables Pulses Roots Mutton

Total quantity of all produce (Fruits, Vegetables, Pulses, Roots and Mutton) received by St. Kitts School Meals Centre from local farmers (“project” and non project farmers) – 2013 school year

Diversity (number ) of Fruits, Vegetables, Pulses and Roots

received by St. Kitts School Meals Centre from local farmers ("Project" and Non Project Farmers) - school year 2013

School Feeding data Collected in St. Kitts

• Total cost of the lunch menu ( two-2 week sampling in April and September 2013)

• Food item procurement: – % of food items (F&V) needs at the School Meals Centre supplied locally by local Farmers (project vs Non

Project farmers) – % of food items (F&V) needs at the School Meals Centre supplied by supermarkets

• Diet Diversity :

– Number of different fruits and vegetables procured weekly – Quantity of different fruits and vegetables procured weekly

• Diet Quality :

– Nutrient composition of meals as offered – Acceptability of food items by school children ( plate waste :0-25% ; 25-50%; 50-75%; 75-100)

• Nutrition outcomes of children

– 24 h recall dietary intake – Fruit and vegetable intake – Anthropometry (BMI; height) – Iron status (blood haemoglobin)

1.34

0.6

1.03

0.8

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

Fruits (Caribbean food group) Vegetables (Caribbean food group)

Serv

ings

per

day

SKN TT

The Challenge: Fruits & vegetables

BMI of subjects in St. Kitts

Before Rice and beans, turkey wings,

Noodles/ground meat Hot dogs Chicken soup with pumpkin

and dumplings Cheese sandwich Sugar drink

After String beans, carrots Tomatoes, cucumbers Sweet potato, pumpkin Melon, green banana Mutton

31

Innovation: Menu changes in St Kitts

Number of children impacted by menu change

Number of meals served daily (national level) 3,200 (17 schools)

Number of modified meals served daily (project level) 800 (4 test schools)

Number of children evaluated 188 (4 + 3 control)

319 391

0

200

400

600

Calories (Kcal)

Calorie intake (Kcal/child/d/lunch meal) by school children in St.

Kitts

Control Schools Intervention Schools

15

47

2 7

27

44

3 11

01020304050

Protein (g) Carbohydrates(g)

Fiber (g) Fat (g)

Nutrient intake (g/child/d/lunch meal) by school children in St. Kitts

Control Schools Intervention Schools

1078

4

2307

12

1

10

100

1000

10000

Vitamin A (IU) Vitamin C (mg)

Vitamin intake ( per child/d/lunch meal) by school children in St. Kitts

Control Schools

Intervention Schools

• School feeding programs are underutilized vehicles for

reversing the obesity trends in CARICOM while providing market opportunity for small holder farmers ;

• Findings from the Project could serve as a useful farm to fork model for regional application in finding solutions to CARICOM food and nutrition insecurity

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

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 Project Partners, researchers, students, research assistants and field

staff for their support and contribution to the research conducted under the CIFSRF CARICOM Project. We also express, on behalf of the Project Team, deep appreciation to our IDRC Officers, Drs. Renaud De Plaen and Susan Robertson, for their unwavering support and encouragement during the conduct of the project.

Special appreciation is expressed to Patrick Cortbaoui and Raffaella Carvalho for their

assistance and dedication during the preparation of the presentation.

Acknowledgments

THANK YOU