Initiating Knowledge Transfer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farmers have somewhat coped with climate-related changes through the use of local knowledge but there is a call for us as researchers to assist in them better adapting to these changes. For small economies like Jamaica where commercial farming is limited. The availability and affordability of food; rural livelihoods now hinged on farmers employing transformational adaptation measures. This project has started the process through a Knowledge Transfer Curriculum (KTC) focused on water management strategies.  

 

Jamaica’s agricultural sector is characterized mostly by small-scale farmers on rain-fed farmlands.  These farmers play a critical role in the nation’s economy and food security. Climate change has increasingly highlighted the vulnerability of the agricultural sector to variable rainfall and extreme events such as droughts. The project “Surviving the Drought: An Irrigation Curriculum for Jamaica’s Small-Scale Farmers” will assist in increasing the adaptive capacity of farmers in St. Elizabeth; one of Jamaica’s principal agricultural zones as well as one of its driest parishes.

Occurrences such as increasing temperature and rainfall variability have led to unreliable yields and decreased crop production within the parish. Low irrigation efficiency and water availability are also major problems. The KTC is designed with three components which are all important longer term adaptation mechanisms, targeted to the reality of small-scale farmers:

 

• Module 1: Climate-Smart Water Conservation Methods

• Module 2: Soil Water Management

• Module 3: Plant-Water Interactions

 

 The project employs the Farmer Field School Approach to deliver the curriculum. Farmers adoption of practices will be monitored, and an evaluation of the efficacy of its modules will be done at the end of each school.

 

The most exciting part about this project is that farmers will become critical decision-making experts through discovery learning and 'learning by doing'. They will learn how to observe, analyze and make their own decisions about how to boost on-farm productive. This knowledge transfer design offers an excellent avenue for capacity building, knowledge sharing and behavioural change at the local level which can impact national food security