National Agriculture and Food Policy of Belize 2015 – 2030.

The National Agriculture and Food Policy is a national policy document with a sectoral approach. The timeframe of the policy is 15 years between 2015 and 2030. The objective of the policy is to ensure the development of the agriculture and food sector, in order to enhance the sustainable growth of the sector, to ensure food and nutrition security, to improve the income of farmers and processors, to create employment, and to attract private sector investment and participation in the sector. The five pillars to support this objective are: (I) production, productivity, and competitiveness; (II) market development, access and penetration; (III) national food and nutrition security and rural livelihoods; (IV) sustainable agriculture and risk management; and (V) governance.
Food and nutrition security will be ensured resulting in a decrease in malnutrition. The “Produce Local, Buy Local, Eat Local” campaign will be promoted by increasing availability of safe, affordable, nutritious, and good quality food commodities and products with an emphasis on locally produced foods. Furthermore, nutrition-enhancing strategies will be implemented to protect public health by improving diets and preventing malnutrition, focusing on the most vulnerable and poor. Good nutrition education will be provided in schools and to the communities. Moreover, a special program of backyard and school gardening will be developed to increase food availability at the household and school levels.
Sustainable livelihood options will be diversified to ensure food and nutrition security for all. The participation of youth and women will be increased in the development process through empowerment programs. Small-scale producers will be encouraged to enter to the specialized markets. Farmers’ organizations will be promoted to enable small scale family farmers to access to financial, processing, and business services. The involvement of youth in agribusiness will be encouraged to ensure continuity of the sector.
In order to ensure sustainable production, productivity and competitiveness in the agriculture and food sectors, the regime of investment incentives for the sector will be strengthened. The mechanisms will be established to meet the quality criteria and sanitary and phytosanitary requirements for domestic and international trade. The capacity of all stakeholders will be enhanced through agricultural education and training to increase productivity. Moreover, innovative technologies will be adopted through research and development to enhance competitiveness in the sector and the mechanisms will be strengthened to support technology transfer. Furthermore, the infrastructure will be improved to support increased production and productivity. The access to domestic and external markets will be improved by addressing enabling environment constraints. To this end, the market information and intelligence systems will be improved, and the use of innovative marketing will be increased in domestic and export markets. The linkages among agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing sectors will be strengthened to expand markets. An effective and efficient information and communication system will be developed.
Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management will be integrated into the agriculture and food sector by supporting adaptation and mitigation strategies. The policy framework and institutional capacity will be strengthened to promote integrated management of the environment. Moreover, strategies will be implemented to combat praedial larceny and contraband.