The Ministry of Agro Industry and Food Security and the Delegation of the European Union have awarded three new grants to the University of Mauritius, the Irrigation Authority and the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture for the implementation of climate adaptation actions. Projects aim at promoting climate smart agriculture initiatives among smallholders in Mauritius and Rodrigues. They will be implemented over 3 years.
The Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Mauritius, Marjaana Sall said: "The European Union is committed in making the Paris Agreement work and in supporting our partners in implementing it. Today's grants to increasing resilience of small farmers to the effects of climate change bear testimony of EU's strong partnership with Mauritius to fight climate change."
The Minister of Agro Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Kumar Seeruttun said: “As an island state, Mauritius is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This has a direct impact on the agricultural sector because our farming activities are directly exposed to climatic conditions. We urgently need to adopt climate smart agricultural practices to increase resilience of our small planters to the effects of climate change to ensure food security”
During the ceremony, three grants for a total amount of more than 50 million Rupees were awarded to the University of Mauritius, the Irrigation Authority and the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture for the implementation of their projects, namely: i) Transformation of Belle Mare into a Climate-Smart Agriculture village for climate resilience, food security, and poverty alleviation of its farmers; ii) Improving Resilience of Small Holders to the effect of climate change; and iii) Smart Agriculture: Transition towards agro ecological climate-resilient food cropping systems in Mauritius.
These three grants add up to the first grant of 40 million rupees that the EU awarded to the Commission of Social Security of the Rodrigues Regional Assembly in July this year. The four grants have been awarded following a comprehensive call for proposals' procedure.
This new EU support, funded under the Global Climate Change Alliance Flagship Initiative (GCCA+), targets climate smart agriculture initiatives that will bring about an improvement in water availability to smallholders, adoption of new technologies, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), all leading to an increase in revenue of smallholders. This is in line with the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) that Mauritius presented at the COP 21 Conference in 2015.
The European Union (EU) partners with the Republic of Mauritius in the fight against climate change through policy dialogue, capacity-building projects and climate finance.
Moreover, the European Union is partnering with the Government to green the tourism industry by stimulating Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) practices along the tourism value chain under the Switch Africa Green programme. The EU also accompanies businesses, including small and medium enterprises, in their transition to a green economy in key areas such as transport, energy, tourism, agriculture and farming.
Mauritius also benefits from EU support with the Programme National d'efficacité énergetique (PNEE), a joint initiative of the private sector, the public sector and international partners, the Energies programme implemented by the Indian Ocean Commission, and the SUNREF Indian Ocean, an initiative of Agence Française de Développement, which promotes green investment.
Source: European External Action