Barbados’ Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security is set to convene a targeted cross-sector consultation next week to co-design actionable adaptive strategies that will shield the island’s agricultural industry from the cascading strains of the ongoing Super El Niño climate pattern, according to remarks from Agriculture Minister Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight delivered during an on-site inspection of the West Indies Rum Distillery’s Kendal Farm facilities. During her tour, Minister Munro-Knight highlighted that the amplified El Niño event, driven by abnormally high sea surface temperatures across the Pacific basin, has extended record dry spells across the Caribbean, strained already limited freshwater reserves, and created unprecedented operational hurdles for local producers. The weather system has also suppressed tropical cyclone formation in the Atlantic, leading to an unusually calm hurricane season even as it amplifies drought risk for smallholder and commercial farmers alike. The minister noted that the Kendal Farm’s existing rainwater harvesting infrastructure served as a promising model of on-site adaptive practice, demonstrating that targeted, practical investments can reduce vulnerability to prolonged dry conditions. Dubbed CONCAF, the upcoming special consultation will assemble a diverse cohort of stakeholders including small-scale farmers, academic researchers, specialists from the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, representatives from the Barbados Water Authority, national meteorology officials, and other key industry partners. The collaborative forum is structured to avoid top-down policy drafting, instead centering on direct input from frontline producers to identify both innovative technical solutions and underused traditional adaptive practices. Minister Munro-Knight emphasized that the strategy development process will prioritize accessible, low-cost measures such as traditional mulching techniques alongside cutting-edge research, rather than only pursuing large, capital-intensive interventions. The shared goal of the consultation is to merge on-the-ground farmer experience, peer-reviewed climate science, and institutional technical expertise to build a context-specific, sustainable resilience pathway that protects local food production and strengthens Barbados’ long-term food and nutritional security amid rising climate volatility.