Decision-Making among Small-Scale Food Farmers in the Caribbean

Abstract

We argue that in order to achieve greater food security and food self-sufficiency in the Caribbean, the capacity of the small-scale farming sector to produce more must be enhanced and that governments of the region must play a more central role in this regard. In order to be effective, governments and policy-makers must have a better sense of the environment in which small-scale farmers operate. This includes the decision environment in which decisions about what to plant, where, when, how, and how much are made. Decisions about marketing and distribution are also being made by farmers with implications for their livelihood and food security. Studying the decision-making framework of small-scale food farmers in the Caribbean—indeed in the tropics—is important as 90 percent of food in rural areas of the developing world is produced by such farmers (Josette Sheeran—World Food Program, 2009). An understanding of small-scale farmers’ decision-making process can shed light on their activities and inform policy-making.