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5.0 Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks & stress Contribution of Agro-forestry in scaling up climate resilience and other potential ecosystem contributions: Agroforestry is the introduction of trees in agricultural systems (crops, livestock or both). Agroforestry provides various environmental and socio-economic benefits. These include: 1) Enhanced biodiversity with diverse habitats, which facilitates the integration of pest management practices through biological control; 2) Improved pollinator communities lead to an increase in crop productivity; 3) Agroforestry provides diversif... Lire la suiteied income and increase the resilience of farmers; 4) Improved water management. Trees can contribute to the contribution of a microclimate which can be favourable for the growth of plants and provide shade to livestock. Trees can be used to create shelterbelts to protect crops against wind damage; 5) The integration of leguminous trees can improve soil fertility. Breakdown of organic matter from trees also improves soil texture and fertility; 6) Soil retention through contour planting; 7) Carbon sequestration; 8) Agroforestry maximises land use and allows the derivation of maximum benefits from trees on agricultural land. Critical elements that could be included in national policies for resilient food systems aligned to natural risk management: 1) Use of appropriate species along river reserves, drains and canals to retain soil and prevent leaching; 2) Mobilising appropriate methods for agriculture on slopes (contour and terrace farming) or restrict agricultural activities on slopes; 3) Supporting agricultural systems which are respectful of the environment through labelling/branding, guaranteed markets, or incentives (incentives should be based on productive output); 4) Improving the structure of the market and develop value chains to reduce competition between farmers and reach out to other market opportunities. Coherent blue transformation strategies for resilient aquaculture & aquatic food systems & strategic intervention areas for building improving risk management systems: Challenges: 1) Insufficient resources are available to exploit marine resources; 2) Some coast inhabitants, specially the fishermen, are unaware of the fact that the fish they catch are not healthy and would make consumers suffer; 3) Aquaculture farming can leave a great impact but the government was not ready for this great project; 4) Presently, CSA is not sufficiently addressed in our national strategies; this should be added and enforced accordingly; 5) It is not easy to change the mindset of farmers to convince them to change their organic farming to something more resilient and technologically modern. Intervention Areas: 1) Collaboration of universities to help address challenges - University of Mauritius (UOM) and many NGO’s in Mauritius are working collaboratively for coral farming as it is a feasible method; 2) Investing in sensitisation campaigns to promote consumer awareness on resilient blue economy pathways as demand comes from consumers, which could be a very powerful incentive for farmers to adopt resilient practices; 3) More farmers’ sensitisation and training on CSA practices; 4) Establishing certification and standards that will incentivise farmers to adopt resilient practices; 5) Government should be lobbied to introduce national policies for enforcing biosafety and biosecurity in local aquaculture; 6) Consumer demand is less for local aquaculture species; this should be changed through awareness and marketing; 7) Large scale aquaculture is tremendously expensive and therefore government has to encourage small scale aquaculture, especially at backyard level. 8) Investing in IT infrastructure for aquaculture is mandatory to help small scale aquaculture beneficiaries; 9) Setting up of training courses in universities or in MITD to train local graduates or officers in climate risk management; 10) Investing in Artificial Intelligence for Climate Risk Profiling to expand early action financing, enhance early warning systems and upgrading the capacity to act. Lire moins

4.0 Priorities for public and development investments Strategic areas for public sector investments to catalyse the transformation of the value chain: 1) Enhancing enforcement of regulations for sustainable crop production and movements along the value chain; 2) Focusing investment in public research for better results in sustainable crop production. Targeted research should be identified so that human and capital investment are geared towards pre-identified outputs (to transform the value chain). Currently, research is done in a haphazard manner with limited coordination among institutions fo... Lire la suiter the application of the results of the research on the fields. Therefore, focused applied research can transform the value chain for more sustainable food production; 3) Development of locally-adapted technologies for transforming the food value chain to respond to the evolving client base and technologies available for sustainable food production; 4) Subsides on Soil analysis: The food chain starts with what we produce on the soil, but what is already in the soil is crucial to know before amending with fertilizers. By doing a soil analysis, the nutrients in the soil are known thus avoiding the use of excessive or unnecessary fertilizers. Make the soil analysis accessible to farmers, partly the government and partly the farmers pay; 5) Mechanization of farms: Making use of IT to facilitate farming as a whole. Use of drones to apply fertilizer or to detect diseases and pests on the plot or greenhouse. The technologies are available elsewhere which makes it easier to bring and adapt the technologies to the local context; 6) Incentives and schemes: Attract young farmers or the new farmers with ideas to implement and build their projects. Many people are discouraged to opt for farming as it is a risky business. Relevant game-changing ideas in transforming the primary, production at scale both in the short and medium term (consider also the role of public and development sector funding in de-risking the transition towards more resilient, sustainable and inclusive food systems): 1) Promoting the use of IoT in agricultural production by government through schemes and incentives and technology development; 2) Encouraging farmers at primary production level to explore technologies yielding sustainable farming practices; 3) Consider using green climate funds for development of a sustainable and inclusive food systems; 4) Creating a Zero- Spoilage platform: Invest in infrastructure where the defective post-harvest farm produce or unsold produce are brought- a small market of 'ugly' farm produce could be created for every small planter and supported by government; 5) Investing in storage facility and food processing: Excess food can be stored in a cold room, thus when there is a shortage on the market, the product is re- exposed to be sold and not wasted. Freezing or chilling become an issue to vegetables, but freeze drying is the best solution to store. 6) Government and private sectors should be lobbied to step up with subsidies/ schemes to promote self- sufficiency that would address threats of high import bill, natural calamities & pandemics; 7) Government should collaborate with banking services to offer smart loans such as self-liquidating loans which is repaid by the productivity of what the loan was secured to purchase. For e.g., a crop production loan can be paid off when crops are sold; 8) Renting/ leasing land facilities should be available by government bodies to alleviate farmers with the financial risk associated with high land loans. Lire moins

3.0 Shifting to nature positive production Challenges: 1) Lack of education among farmers when it comes to farming techniques (excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides to maximise production); 2) Farmers are reluctant to shift to modern farming techniques; 3) Disinterest of youth to start a business in agriculture; 4) Producers are unaware of different policies and grants made available to them for ensuring a sustainable production; 5) In Mauritius, agricultural field plots are well defined by boundaries, and there is little encroachment in protected areas. The proximity of agricultural lan... Lire la suiteds to natural water bodies does impose some problems with respect to leaching of agro -chemicals. Intervention areas where farmers and other concerned actors need to protect of natural ecosystem: 1) Introducing stringent laws to hinder disposal of fertilisers and pesticides in water bodies by agro-industries and farmers; 2) Legal Laws & regulations to earmark buffer regions near water bodies thus limiting damage caused by big agri-corporates/ large scale food producers; 3) Introduction of policies and constant follow-up on agri-companies/food producers to control the usage of agro-chemicals in their production (Similarly, farmers growing vegetables like watercress that are grown in water bodies, should be careful while using pesticides to control caterpillars). Assessing the contribution of novel sustainable farming practices such as Agroecology: 1) Introducing green belts around vegetable fields. This can help to act as wind breaks, but also attract pollinators; 2) Agro-forestry is also good practice as a good agricultural practice for both crop plantation as well as for rearing animals ( grazing grounds). Over years, farmers have been encouraged to shift to organic ​farming, which is more ecological way to safer food production; 3) Engaging in sensitisation campaign not only to educate farmers but also to consumers is equally ​important as they are the one setting the demand aspect; 4) Organising seminars on different value addition methods; 5) Encouraging young farmers to implement new farming techniques to increase productivity and to ensure a ​sustainable production; 6) Developing soil regeneration programmes (F.A.L.C.O.N Association provides both theoretical & practical ​courses on soil biodiversity management)and that can only happen though controlled and minimal use of ​fertilizers and other agro-chemicals that add to greenhouse gas emission such as nitrous oxides and ​methane. Roles of the public and development sector in de-risking and funding the transitional period: 1) Public body are the drivers to change, by setting proper legislations and policies. Similarly, there should be ​schemes to encourage to take risks and endeavor in new agricultural ventures; 2) Efficient water use is also an important component in new scenarios of climate change, where dry ​seasons are more frequent. Need to have schemes on rain water harvesting systems, so that they become ​more popular among farmers in Mauritius as well as subsidies on irrigation systems like drip irrigation ​implements; 3) Subsidies on bio-organic fertilisers & pesticides to promote organic and even agroecological farming; 4) Government & private companies should provide sponsors to farmers associations to engage in ​national awareness campaigns on organic agriculture, agroecological practices ( F.A.L.C.O.N Association ​is already engaged in such activities) Lire moins

2.0 Advancing sustainability, equity, openness and fairness in the governance of food value chains, including international trade Strategic interventions to deliver circular food systems-slashing on-farm and post-harvest losses: Mauritius has signed an agreement with the UN and EU to reduce the post harvest losses by half- Mauritius is yet so far to reach that goal. Proposed strategies include: 1) Educate the farmers on how to build low cost storage rooms; 2) Make new business out of the rejected foods; 3) Educate the consumer about healthy vegetables being the ones with small amount of pestic... Lire la suiteides so as to prevent food loss; 4) Donation of food surplus; 5) The Agricultural Marketing Board (AMB) came up with the idea to work with the planters to store their vegetables in a cold storage facilities during this pandemic; 6) Make use of all vegetables that is both the imperfect and perfect vegetables. In Mauritius we need to adopt the system of selling both the perfect and imperfect vegetables as they do in France. Unsold vegetables can be donated to vulnerable people (practice adopted by Foodwise and Cuisine Solidaire in Mauritius); 7) Imperfect vegetables can be used by Agripreneurs and Entrepreneurs; 8)To minimize food loses we need to make use as a raw materials; for e.g., using the skin of onion to extract pectin; 9) Educate planters about the simple practices to reduce post harvest losses and how to make use of the appropriate temperature; 10) Implement solar cold storage as we have in Nigeria and India which can be beneficial to small planters; 11) Need to focus on the product to the maximum and know how to capitalize the product; For e.g., Banana are used for a lot of food products but the leaves are thrown away, the leaves could have been used in the making of packaging or even plates and bowls. Strategic actions of Food producers; It’s the consumers that dictate the producers what he wants. The mindset of consumers needs to change to encourage them to eat local food. 75% of our vegetables are imported. There is a competition between local producers and international producers. One action taken is the Made in Moris Products while other proposals would include: 1) Provide new farming techniques such as vertical farming; 2) Re-invent the farmers to be smart for example, to use inputs when needed, and to change the way they produce; 3)As proposed by a participant; create a plant academy to bridge the gap. The plant academy will consist of sharing of knowledge between new and old farmers about their ways of plantation and techniques that could be implemented to boost Agriculture; 4) Discuss on ways to buy and sell products; 5) Educate people toward biofarming, sustainable agriculture and about organic vegetables; 6) SKC Surat Ltd has implemented the Maurigap 1, 2, 3 and global gap strategies. They also added a seal of trust on most of their packaging which represent that the food is safe (Food Act). Inclusive polices for local trade and exportation opportunities: 1)Small planters should aim for Mauri GAP certified; 2) Promote vertical framing and also expand in the Horticulture business by proper guidance to planters; 3) Establish an authority for Horticulture; 4) It is difficult for small cooperatives to export their products. Set-up of grouping cooperatives is key in order to support each other in expanding their business in other countries; 5) Look into the food act, food regulation and processing of food for local businesses; 6) Reinvent ourselves in producing our food. Multiple small farmers and entrepreneur could create a small group of farmers producing the same vegetables or products and then export. Assessing opportunities of Agricultural Cooperatives as business models for farmers & SMEs: 1)The government or SMEs can create a Planters' Academy where the latter can help and guide the farmer to achieve his goal; 2)Incorporate packaging in the food chain, the farmer alone cannot produce and package its products- Cooperative authorities can help them. Lire moins

1.0 Enhancing availability and equitable access to factors of production Operational/ Financial Risks: 1) Poor communication; 2) Business interruption due to impact of internal (e.g. high employee turnover; scarcity of skilled labour) and/or external factors (e.g. climatic change; natural calamities; pandemics); 3) Product failure; 4) Health and safety issues; 5) Loss of suppliers; 6) Availability of raw materials; 7) Credit risk; 8) Liquidity risk. Strategic interventions to address above risks by local food producers and other chain actors: 1) Agricultural insurance scheme to provide a safet... Lire la suitey net against external shocks on the business; 2) Training on health and safety issues to ensure traceability and quality; 3) Availability of accessible funding mechanisms by public and private funders; 4) Building on Credit systems prioritising economic status of smallholder farmers; 5) Governments should be lobbied to establish special disaster relief funds to assist farmers to kick-start businesses affected by natural calamities/pandemics; 6) Land should be made bankable for farmers to access capital; 7) Computerising the exchange system of agricultural produce for traceability to discourage thefts; 8) Engaging in Agricultural Cooperatives as a potential business models for aspiring farmers; 9) Collaboration of Government and IT companies to streamline farm operations that would result in an efficient supply chain; 10) Developing local organic certifications as the current ones are expensive. For e.g., the introduction of a local Participatory Guarantee System would be a life-changing for small organic farmers due to its low- cost of implementation. The PGS system would act as a local organic certifying body allowing farmers to sell their produce at retail prices. Strategic interventions to increase the pace and scale of the involvement of a younger generation of agripreneurs: 1) Agri-preneurship should be encouraged through the introduction of agricultural programmes for young people starting at primary school. Auxiliary measures such as the establishment of agricultural youth clubs (or associations such as the F.A.L.C.O.N Young Farmers launched by F.A.L.C.O.N Association at the University of Mauritius & at national level) from local, regional, national up to the global level & agricultural competitions should also be considered. Foster training (short courses, undergraduate ; postgraduate courses in digitilisation to attract youth ; 2) Provision of fiscal incentive for investment in the agricultural sector; 3) Engaging in adequate market infrastructure for efficient distribution, wholesale and retail of agricultural commodities; 4) Providing adequate infrastructure for value-addition to agricultural commodities; 5) Trade policies to encourage local food production and import substitution; 6) Special scheme allocation for women & youth to gain access to land, fertilisers, farm equipment etc.; 7) Set-up of specialised institutions that assist youth, women and other farmers to write projects that would help grow their business. What can the younger generation undertake to contribute towards this, and what is it that they expect from other agri-stakeholders? Commitment of the younger generation towards constructing a sustainable food system for Mauritius The younger generation expects that there is a shared belief amongst agri-stakeholders on fostering sustainable food production practices, sustainable food processing, distribution and responsible consumption. Recommendations for R & D Policies conducive for developing local seed banks, high yielding crop varieties, fertiliser subsidies, mechanisation, solar farming or other feasible forms of precision Agriculture: 1) R & D policies : - The development of low cost technology for precision farming adapted to the local context; - Research trials to develop bio fertilisers and biopesticides as substitutes for inorganic agricultural inputs; - Development of alternative sources of energy to fossil fuels. Lire moins

The major findings of the Five Action Tracks evolve mainly on the following areas: 1. Networking: The need to establish relationships between a variety of stakeholders; including scientists, researchers, and economists together with farmers, civil society, government agencies, corporates, academia. These groups play a significant role in establishing circular food systems, evaluating trade-offs and measuring results; 2. Actionable strategies: To achieve success, stakeholders have to collaborate to align public policies, subsidies, and financial investments that incentivize agri-businesses and ... Lire la suitefarmers. 3. Empowering women’s agency and young farmers for resilience: Government should allocate special schemes for youth and women having an interest in farming. Government needs to facilitate collaboration among private Agri and IT companies, farmers associations, academia to resolve gaps faced by the young & women farmers. 4. Dialogues: A single dialogue per year does not have far-reaching impact in shaping resilient food systems. Along with international member organisations, Government and domestic corporates should provide funding to hold frequent national events that would assemble all the stakeholders in the food value chain for building on more sustainable and equitable food systems. Lire moins

The following guided the National Dialogue process: (1) Enhancing availability and equitable access to factors of production; (2) Advancing sustainability, equity, openness and fairness in the governance of food value chains, including international trade; (3) Shifting to nature positive production; (4) Priorities for public and development investments; (5) Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks & stress. Questions for discussions: 1.0 Enhancing availability and equitable access to factors of production: (a) Provide major operational and financial risks faced by local food producers a... Lire la suitend agree on at least 3 strategic interventions that would be necessary to address this by the producers themselves and other chain actors; (b) Identify maximum 5 strategic interventions that can increase the pace and scale of the involvement of a younger generation of Agripreneurs. What can the younger generation undertake to contribute towards this, and what is it that they expect from other agri-stakeholders? (c) Suggest at least 3 recommendations for R & D Policies conducive for developing local seed banks, high yielding crop varieties, fertiliser subsidies, mechanisation, solar farming or other feasible forms of precision Agriculture. 2.0 Advancing sustainability, equity, openness and fairness in the governance of food value chains, including international trade: (a) Agree on at least 5 strategic interventions to deliver circular food systems-slashing on-farm and post-harvest losses; (b) Provide strategic actions of Food producers; (c) Suggest at least 3 inclusive polices for local trade and exportation opportunities; (d) Assess the opportunities of Agricultural Cooperatives as business models for farmers & SMEs. 3.0 Shifting to nature positive production: (a) Identify intervention areas where farmers and other concerned actors to protect of natural ecosystem; (b) Assess the contribution of novel sustainable farming practices such as Agroecology; (c) State relevant measures for decarbonisation and resilience with innovation; (d) Suggest roles of the public and development sector in de-risking and funding the transitional period. 4.0 Priorities for public and development investments: (a) Propose at least 3 strategic areas for public sector investments to catalyse the transformation of food value chain; (b) Suggest at least 3 relevant game-changing ideas in transforming the primary, production at scale (consider also the role of public and development sector funding in de-risking the transition towards more resilient, sustainable and inclusive food systems). 5.0 Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks & stress: (a) State the contribution of Agro-forestry in scaling up climate resilience and other potential ecosystem contributions; (b) Suggest critical elements that could be included in national policies for resilient food systems aligned to natural risk management; (c) State coherent blue transformation strategies for resilient aquaculture & aquatic food systems; (d) Identify strategic intervention areas for improving existing risk management systems. Lire moins