Food security, defined by the World Food Summit of 1996, defined Food Security as “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Though the entirety of this definition is very important to the understanding of how food security works, I’d like to pay a closer attention to the paraphrase When all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food”.
Picture this scenario, the world is in turmoil and unrest. Geopolitical conflicts are dividing nations and is becoming the determining factor in all international relationships between countries. Global Warming is quickly developing into a direct life-threatening problem and famine is slowly taking over. War and conflict have made trade between countries little to non-existent and small countries like Dominica that depend on imports in order to feed its people are in for economic and national chaos.
The importance of self sufficiency is derived from situations like this. In an alternate future where we are unable to depend on others, we must be able to provide for ourselves at the very least. On an island known for its rich nutrient dense soil, coming to know that our agricultural land is not being used at its maximum capacity comes to a surprise to many. The absence of cultivation on our land comes from a number of contributing factors, from the lack of local infrastructure such as roads in order to connect potential farms to markets to the lack of coordinated attempts to promote the consumption of local goods by locals which in turn promotes the cultivation for the local market and even to the decisions of our ancestors who built communities upon the land they also used for farming. These historical small villages are now major communities today which sit upon agricultural land.
This project is in an attempt to bring awareness to the need for agricultural development in Dominica. Consisting of a map of the agricultural land, this project has the potential to aid in the solving of some major agricultural problems, to aid in the development of small-scale backyard farming in communities that exist on agricultural land and the potential to help in the development of infrastructure such as roads and bridges in order to connect potential farms to their markets. All these things in an attempt to ensure the food security of everyone on island.