Provisions: Organic, Hydroponic and Hybrid Agriculture for Caribbean Schools and MSMEs

Submitted by: St. Kitts-Nevis via Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College

Project Team:Dr. Leighton Naraine, Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College Dr. Kevin Meehan, University of Central Florida Mr. Amenold Pierre, University of Nouvelle Grand’Anse Dr. Owen Day, CARIBSAVE Partnership

Overview: The Provisions Project will transform local food production in St. Kitts-Nevis, Haiti, and the Caribbean region by making innovative organic, hydroponic, and hybrid agriculture techniques more widely available to smallholder farmers.

Provisions: Organic, Hydroponic and Hybrid Agriculture for Caribbean Schools and MSMEs

Regional Scope through Strong Partnerships

Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (SKN). The Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College is the only local Tertiary Level Institution in St. Kitts-Nevis. It is now transitioning to university status and will introduce Agricultural Education based on six years of research on Agricultural Diversification by Dr. Naraine and colleagues.

University of Central Florida (USA). Dr. Meehan has more than 20 years experience in Haiti and St. Kitts-Nevis and was recently funded by the National Science Foundation (USA) to study the use of mobile devices in Haiti for disaster relief, interagency coordination, and education.

University of Nouvelle Grand’Anse (Haiti). UNOGA has trained teachers and students in rural Haiti since 1989 and Mr. Pierre has partnered with UCF since 2007.

CARIBSAVE Partnership (Barbados). CARIBSAVE is a joint venture between CARICOM and Oxford University focusing on the environment, tourism, and economic development. Dr. Day is Head of Communications and Biodiversity, and has experience in developing educational resource material.

Provisions: Organic, Hydroponic and Hybrid Agriculture for Caribbean Schools and MSMEs

Problem: Numerous agencies have called for new climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that focus on improved data collection, development of comprehensive education resources with a regional scope and focus, integration of climate change science with ethical (action-oriented) and humanistic perspective, and a need for full regional inclusion with a special emphasis on historically-excluded Haitian partners.

Rationale: Organized through Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College, Provisions seeks to 1) improve science and engineering education related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, 2) put this knowledge into action to improve livelihoods through extension programs supporting small scale agriculture throughout the Caribbean region, 3) establish critical liaison with Haitian partners, and thus provide leadership in the drive to achieve full inclusion of Haiti in regional climate change education initiatives.

Framework Program: Promoting Improvements and transfer of knowledge in Science and Engineering Education

Line of Action: To stimulate industrial innovation and promote MSME development by fostering academic-public-private partnerships to improve applied research, as well as advanced development and engineering applications.

Provisions: Organic, Hydroponic and Hybrid Agriculture for Caribbean Schools and MSMEs

Summary of Beneficiaries & Sustainability

Direct Beneficiaries: education stakeholders, community-based stakeholders

Indirect Beneficiaries: retail produce vendors, produce consumers

Risks/Assumptions: technology, data management, regional scope

Corrective Measures: demonstrated expertise, pre-existing regional partnerships

Appropriation of Benefits: curriculum materials are re-usable and scalable; human capacity gains mainstreamed in academic, government, and private sectors.

Medium and Long Term Financial Sustainability: microfinance to lower start-up cost of agriculture enterprises; implementation of business management best practices to maximize profitability.

Provisions: Organic, Hydroponic and Hybrid Agriculture for Caribbean Schools and MSMEs

Products & Budget

Scoping study and preliminary report $44,000Consultations with stakeholders and preliminary report $80,000Business plan $24,000Micro-financing concept paper and implementation $36,000Curriculum resources $68,000Community-based workshops $40,000Train-the-teacher workshops $40,000Interim reports and evaluation of workshops $48,000Interim report and evaluation of micro-finance strategies $24,000Finalize implementation framework for full regional inclusion $52,000Final project report and evaluation $20,000

Total Estimated Budget $496,000

This project and products will greatly improve livelihoods and build resilience on a wide scale through education and practical applications.