Essay Example on Explore Belize: The Perfect Climate for Adventure!

Introduction

Belize is a country found in Central America and borders Mexico on the north, Guatemala on its south and west and its east the Caribbean Sea. Belize's land is mostly undeveloped, has got a marshy coastal plain with mangrove swamps, hills and low mountains with hardwood forests. She has a population of 390,500 distributed on 22,810 km2 land representing 0.01% of the world's population. (shatter at el, 2019). The climate is said to be almost perfect, with a yearly average temperature of 29 degrees, a GDP of 1.93B USD the highest ever, growing at an average of 0.61 B USD (Thiagarajan, S, 2018). This paper talks about polices and problems that are associated with agriculture, food and population.

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Population

The population of Belize as of July 20, 2019, is estimated as 390,554 individuals, with 42.3% of the population being in the urban area with a growth rate of 2.6 %. The population density of 17 people per km2 accounting to the lowest in the region (satter at el, 2019). Though being small in size, Belize is diverse in ethnicity of Mestizos, Creoles, Garifuna, Q'eqchi', Yucatec and Mopan Mayans. It consists of an age structure of 36.8 % below 14 years, 59.6% ranging from 15-64 of age and 3.5% of people above 65 years. The birth rate of 26.43/ 1,000 population compared to the world's of 53, a death percentage of 5.87/100 equated to the realms of 169. The poverty level in Belize is high, with 43% living below the national poverty line with 16% of them facing extreme poverty level.

Since it is a developing country, Belize experiences a wide range of problem regarding Its population growth to a low growth rate of Its GDP and PP. With a high percentage of population growth, Belize's GDP is facing a crisis due to Its longstanding and anti-exports biasness of public policies. Its tax and trade policies distort the exports incentives, which is the essential property of anti-export bias notwithstanding the under-provision of critical public goods that reinforces these policies. The strategies have to lead to an increase in cost in finance, which the country's s revenue is unable to support.

Food and Agriculture

Even though there is the availability of food in Belize, a large number of the population are still poor with the poverty level of 43% below the national poverty line hence being prone to food insecurities. (Palacio et al.,2016). Belize's food security highly depended on Agriculture. Its inability to cope with changes in climate, deforestation, improper waste disposal, increased coastal development, and increased poverty sees the Ecosystem threatened( Wells at el, 2018). Belize, therefore, reacted to these issues by coming up with policy and programmatic initiatives to help stabilize the situation. With agriculture being a primary food source and also to the economy, it got more concentration, and systems supporting it legalized.

These policies included that of; 'National Food Security of Belize.' (foster at el, 2017). The system was to ensure food security and independence through sustainable production of agricultural products, supply, accessibility, and innovative ways of production of high-quality products. The strategies comprised six programs of; storage, marketing, processing, diversification of the culturally accepted foods for all the Belizeans(Haines, 2019). Even though these policies were passed, and are under implementation, their effectiveness and impact towards the realization of food security are doubtful.

References

Foster, W., Valdes, A., Martel, P., & De Salvo, C. P. (2017). Analysis of agricultural policies IN BELIZE. IDB Monograph (Climate Change and Sustainable Development Sector. Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division); IDB-MG-537.

Haines, S. (2019). Managing expectations: articulating expertise in climate services for agriculture in Belize. Climatic Change, 1-17.

Satter, C. B., Augustine, B. C., Harmsen, B. J., Foster, R. J., & Kelly, M. J. (2019). Sexspecific population dynamics of ocelots in Belize using susceptible population spatial capture-recapture. Ecosphere, 10(7), e02792.

Thiagarajan, S. (2018). An Analysis of Performance of Commercial Banks in Belize during the Post Global Recession Period. Journal of Finance, 6(2), 33-47.

Wells, G. J., Stuart, N., Furley, P. A., & Ryan, C. M. (2018). Ecosystem service analysis in marginal agricultural lands: A case study in Belize. Ecosystem services, 32, 70-77.