Building resilient food systems in small island developing states

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, small island developing states (SIDS) share a range of challenges.

SIDS typically have little arable land and limited sources of freshwater. This makes them reliant on importing most of their food, which can be expensive and less nutritious. Their reliance on imports also makes these countries vulnerable to crises, from the impacts of climate change to pandemics to financial crashes. Many also struggle with diseases like diabetes and obesity.

But small-scale farmers can fight these problems. Here are some of the ways IFAD works with small-scale farmers to make agrifood systems more resilient and sustainable.

Indigenous communities have generations of experience with producing food while nurturing their local environments.

In Fiji, the PIRAS facility supported farmers in reviving the traditional practice of solesolevaki, where entire communities share labour and tools. In Marinitawa, farmers worked together to harvest, process and replant each cassava field in less than an hour – tasks that would have taken them days if done individually.

In the Solomon Islands, the Indigenous Babanakira community used an IPAF grant to record and revive traditional ways of preparing for disasters, such as planting native species on the foreshore to cope with sea-level rise and reinforcing homes with reeds to protect against storms.

Small-scale farmers in healthy agrifood systems depend on biodiversity. In SIDS, IFAD is supporting them in using agroforestry techniques that conserve and nurture their wealth of biodiversity.

In Kiribati, farmers like Teakontaake have adopted integrated farming systems with support from OIWFP. Teakontaake uses techniques like composting and planting nitrogen-fixing crops to make the soil more fertile and increase its natural biodiversity. She also plants native crops like breadfruit, banana and pumpkin, which are well adapted to local conditions. In this way, she has increased her food production and the nutritional diversity of her family’s meals.

OIWFP also promotes adapted traditional techniques, such as digging pits that hold giant swamp taro (babai). The pits and the crops planted alongside them allow water to collect at the bottom, nourishing the babai and creating an invaluable food reserve for times of drought.

Through the GEF-funded Food Systems Integrated Program, IFAD is now collaborating with FAO to make agrifood systems sustainable and nature-positive in 32 countries, including SIDS like Grenada and the Solomon Islands.

In SIDS, remoteness, high transport costs, lack of economies of scale and small domestic markets limit income-generating opportunities for farmers and agribusinesses. Value chain development links small-scale farmers to markets and helps build economic resilience. To achieve this, investment opportunities must be carefully designed to:

• Choose climate-smart inputs: In Madagascar, IFAD invested in climate-smart inputs such as improved seeds, organic materials and training on the right harvesting techniques. This improved households’ dietary diversity, incomes and ability to recover from shocks.
• Invest in farm infrastructure: In Grenada, SAEP set up water harvesting systems that enabled farmers to get through dry periods without losing crops or livestock. Meanwhile in Cabo Verde, solar-powered water systems supported by POSER helped increase the number of cropping seasons and allowed banana and cassava farmers like Marina to feed their families.
• Enable access to finance: Many SIDS are heavily dependent on remittances from overseas workers. But these countries’ remittance markets are small in global terms, so it can be difficult or expensive for rural people to receive them. The IFAD-supported RemitSCOPE platform provides detailed data and analyses of remittances from countries in Africa and the Americas to facilitate policymaking and new financial products that make it easier to receive and send remittances.

The value of building resilience became clear for home gardeners like Toakase in Tonga, whose islands were devastated by the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano in 2022. Her orchard and garden were destroyed and buried by ash. But a community plant nursery, established with funding from PIRAS to develop local planting materials after the COVID-19 pandemic, gave her a way to rebuild. She planted new seedlings and quickly re-established her home garden.

“I don’t sell any of my vegetable harvests,” Toakase says. “I will give to my family who have suffered just as much as I have.”

Investing in farmers like Toakase is crucial for SIDS to adapt to climate change, produce nutritious food and reduce reliance on expensive imports.