Vanuatu: Families Find Climate-Smart Ways To Grow Crops 18 Months On From Cyclone Devastation

Families in Vanuatu are adopting climate-smart agricultural techniques to improve food security, such as growing climate resistant crops, to prepare for future climate-driven disasters in the wake of devastating Tropical Cyclone Lola 18 months ago.

Tropical Cyclone Lola was one of the most powerful off-season storms to strike the Pacific when it made landfall in October 2023 with wind speeds of up to 215 km/h, destroying homes, schools and plantations, claiming the lives of at least four people [2] and affecting about 91,000 people [1].

Recovery efforts were made significantly more challenging when Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila was then hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in December last year, claiming 14 lives and destroying critical infrastructure.

Madleen, 11, said when the cyclone hit, her family’s crops were destroyed, leaving them short of food.

"It destroyed the food crops. When we came outside, we saw the crops were destroyed. The banana tree was just bearing fruit and it was destroyed. And we didn’t have enough food. We were eating rice, but we were almost running short. We were not eating well, we ate just enough. I felt bad."

After the cyclone, a shortage of nutritious food put children at risk of hunger as well as diseases like diarrhea, with typically an increase in the number of children hospitalised for diarrhea following cyclones, Save the Children said.

Vanuatu is already one of the most climate disaster-prone countries in the world, and scientists say tropical cyclones will become more extreme as the climate crisis worsens. This will disproportionately impact children due to food shortages, disruption to education and psychosocial trauma associated with experiencing disasters.

Save the Children, alongside Vanuatu’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries, and Biosecurity (MALFFB) and local partners, is supporting Madleen and her family through the Tropical Cyclone Lola Recovery Programme, which is helping improve food security and resilience in communities impacted by the cyclone.

As a part of the Recovery Programme, over 1,100 households have received climate-resistant [3] seeds from a seedbank. These seeds, for growing watermelon, papaya, Chinese cabbage, tomato, capsicum and cucumber, are proven to perform in Vanuatu’s changing climate, with tolerance to high rainfall, drought, pests and disease. Farmers are encouraged to preserve the seeds from crops and sell them back to the seed bank.

The programme is also training communities in other climate-smart agricultural techniques such as growing smaller fruit trees that are robust enough to withstand strong cyclone winds.

Save the Children has also built a collapsible nursery for plants in Madleen’s community that can be taken down when a cyclone is predicted, so saplings and trees can be stored, protected and replanted after it passes.

Save the Children Vanuatu Country Director, Polly Banks, said:

"In just 18 months, people in Vanuatu have been deeply shaken by a devastating cyclone and a powerful earthquake.

"Children have borne the brunt of this, with food taken off their plates, crops destroyed, homes and schools damaged and diseases on the rise. As the climate crisis accelerates, we must work with communities to strengthen their resilience, so children and their families are better equipped to face whatever comes next.

"We’re working in partnership with the Government of Vanuatu and local partners to help communities build the skills and resources they need to support themselves when future cyclones and disasters strike."

Save the Children has been working in in Vanuatu for more than 40 years to make sure children are learning, protected from harm, and grow up healthy and strong.

Notes:

This project was also supported by the New Zealand Government's Disaster Response Partnership programme.

Multimedia content, including video interviews and b-roll can be found here: https://www.contenthubsavethechildren.org/Share/807tf4t4e61e20g1d77to4w5gh6fqxh2

[1] National Disaster Management Office Vanuatu: Tropical Cyclone Lola: Internationally Deployed Assets (As of 2 November 2023) | OCHA

[2] Cyclone Lola deaths caused by inaccessibility to urgent medical care

[3] Open-pollinated seeds (OP seeds) produce plants that can reproduce true to type, meaning farmers can save seeds from their harvest and plant them in the next season with similar results. OP varieties used and recommended by the Vanuatu Agriculture Research and Technical Centre are often locally adapted, meaning they’ve been trialed and selected for their performance in Vanuatu’s climate - including tolerance to high rainfall, drought, pests and diseases. These seeds have genetic diversity, allowing plants to better adapt to changing weather patterns.

About Save the Children NZ:

Save the Children works in 120 countries across the world. The organisation responds to emergencies and works with children and their communities to ensure they survive, learn and are protected.

Save the Children NZ currently supports international programmes in Fiji, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Areas of work include child protection, education and literacy, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, and alleviating child poverty.

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