Agriculture and Tourism in Jamaica

Agriculture and tourism are the old and the new of the Jamaican economy and have two crucial features in common: they’re both critical sources of income for the island and they are both on the front line of climate change.

As temperatures, sea levels and storm intensity rise, tourism and agriculture will be under assault and the ways that worked in the past will not be guarantees of prosperity in the future. Farmers may face lower yields, more crop failures and greater numbers of pests, while tourism operators may contend increased beachfront erosion, higher prices for imported food and infrastructure damage from flooding and storms.

In 2010, the Institute for Environment and Development with Oxfam enlisted CARIBSAVE to look at how climate change is likely to impact on tourism and agriculture and how that fallout affects socio-economic development, poverty and gender relations.

The researchers found that because tourism and agriculture are integral to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Jamaicans, they are also central to any effort to adapt to climate change. However, the sectors differ in several key ways: tourism contributes about 5.8 percent of gross domestic product and directly employs around 80,000 people, whereas farming makes a similar contribution to the economy but employs many more people - about 230,000, most of whom are the poorest in the country.

Each sector has the potential to support the other as Jamaica tries to plan for and fortify itself against the effects of climate change. Stronger links between the two, such as greater use of local food in tourist resorts, can reduce tourism’s reliance on imports and raise incomes for Jamaican farmers. That kind of interdependence gives each party an interest in the other’s future, making otherwise separate needs, such as water supply, common.

The study also concluded that an understanding of the different roles men and women play in Jamaica is essential to any plans for the future. Labour is often defined along gender lines, exposing women and men to different risks and opportunities.

Temperatures are already on the rise in Jamaica and rainfall is varying from year to year. It’s a dynamic set of factors that will influence agriculture and tourism in disparate ways but in similar amounts - capitalising on this is the best survival strategy on offer.

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For further information contact: admin@caribsave.org

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