Jamaica is set to benefit from a US$50 million climate resilience project aimed at supporting vulnerable farmers, following approval by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, with funding support from the Green Climate Fund.

The initiative, titled “ADAPT Jamaica: Enhancing Climate Change Resilience of Vulnerable Smallholders in Central Jamaica,” was approved Friday during the 44th meeting of the GCF Board in Songdo. The FAO said the project represents the first-ever single-country climate investment Jamaica has received from the GCF.

According to the FAO, the GCF grant contribution amounts to more than US$40 million, with additional financing coming from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Development Bank of Jamaica, and the FAO.

The project is expected to benefit more than 700,000 people—about half of them women—across six central parishes responsible for roughly 70 per cent of Jamaica’s domestic food production.

The FAO said the project targets areas where climate risks and food security challenges are most severe, citing increasing hurricanes, prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall that are already lowering agricultural yields, increasing food loss and threatening rural livelihoods.

“This decision underscores the trust that the GCF and the Government of Jamaica place in FAO’s capacity to deliver solutions to the multiple challenges the country faces,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu.

“Protecting vulnerable farmers and investing in sustainable and resilient agrifood systems is among the smartest choices we can make for climate action that also delivers on the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life—leaving no one behind,” he added.

Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture, Floyd Green, described the project as both timely and critical.

“Our farmers are on the frontline of climate change, facing more intense droughts, stronger hurricanes and increasing production risks,” Green said. “This investment allows us to move from response to resilience by strengthening infrastructure, expanding access to climate-smart technologies and improving how farmers produce, store and bring food to market.”

“It is a decisive step toward securing Jamaica’s food systems for the future,” he added.

The FAO noted that agriculture contributes approximately seven per cent to Jamaica’s gross domestic product and supports about 18 per cent of the population. Smallholder farmers primarily grow root crops, pulses, vegetables and fruits, often on rain-dependent hillside plots, making them particularly vulnerable to climate impacts.

Recent storms have underscored the risks. Hurricane Beryl caused agricultural losses exceeding US$30 million and affected more than 48,000 farmers when it struck Jamaica in July 2024. The FAO also cited Hurricane Melissa, which made direct landfall in October 2025 as the first Category 5 hurricane to hit Jamaica, causing between US$6 billion and US$7 billion in damage and destroying more than 100,000 structures across key agricultural areas.

The FAO also pointed to findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report, which indicates tropical cyclones are expected to intensify as global temperatures rise—meaning Jamaica could face more destructive hurricanes, longer dry periods and increasingly unpredictable rainfall.

Additional challenges include soil erosion from unsustainable hillside farming, deforestation pressures and high post-harvest losses estimated at 30 to 40 per cent for many crops. Farmers frequently lose tomatoes, onions and leafy vegetables due to poor storage, limited temperature-controlled facilities and delays in getting produce to market.

The ADAPT Jamaica project aims to address these issues through climate-resilient farming practices, improved water and post-harvest systems, strengthened climate information and early-warning services, and better access to finance and markets.

The FAO said the initiative represents a major investment in Jamaica’s long-term food security and will help stabilise the country’s food supply as climate change intensifies.