Mainstreaming Agri-Compatible Virtual Resource Flows in Agri-Food System Adaptation to Climate Change in the Caribbean

Abstract

Climate change does not only threaten to amplify hydrometeorological disaster risks (to which the Caribbean countries are highly exposed and vulnerable) but also to unravel the agri-food systems of the Caribbean. Land and water are indispensable to food production but are scarce in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States where food imports play a major role in food security. Food trade indirectly circulates productive resources such as land and water and this has been captured in the virtual resource flow concept. However, Caribbean states have failed to realize and take strategic advantage of the virtual resource flow concept in a manner compatible with resource and food supply needs. Since food trade will play important role in future food security, it is worthy of consideration as part of a suite of adaptation measures. This chapter uses agri-compatible virtual land use associated with maize production and trade in Barbados to promote the need for mainstreaming virtual resource flows in the adaptation of agri-food systems to climate change in the Caribbean. Gaps and linkages in the production-trade-consumption nexus are explored in relation to agri-food system resilience based on the virtual resource flow concept in a changing climate. The chapter concludes that strategic use of agri-compatible virtual resource flows can be instrumental to the adaptation of Caribbean agri-food systems in the face of resource scarcity and climate change.