Agriculture in Mauritius occupies about 40% of the land area and includes about 22,000 small-scale individual sugarcane planters, and about 12,000 small growers of food crops, tea, tobacco, palm, fruit and flowers. Agriculture in Mauritius is dominated by sugarcane, with about 70% of the sugarcane sector under corporate management, while the remaining 30% is owned by individual planters. The mean temperature in the country has been increasing by 0.13°C per decade. On the other hand, rainfall has seen an overall decrease of about 100 mm over the last 50 years. Tropical storms are increasing in strength, with more frequent flood events. Mean sea levels have risen. Furthermore, the ecosystem and natural habitat of fish and other marine species are being rapidly eroded due to adverse impacts of climate change, with some coral reefs under the threat of extinction, and natural assets, such as beaches, which are vital to the tourism industry may deteriorate, posing threat to some $50 million in value from the sector by 2050. The major agriculture policies in Mauritius are broad-based and designed for food security and agricultural productivity in the nation, rather than for climate-smartness per se. However, Mauritius has, in its NDC, made it clear that CSA is a specific mitigation strategy it intends to implement. Furthermore, the Strategic Plan for Food Crop, Livestock and Forestry Sectors identifies CSA as one of the cross-cutting matters that must be addressed, along with twelve specific actions to do so.
