Quick Snapshot
For many Seychellois families, the question isn’t “will there be food?” so much as “can we still afford good food?” When most fresh produce arrives by ship, pegged to global prices, the answer is increasingly uncertain.
Seychelles’ 115 islands float in the western Indian Ocean, famed for granite boulders and blue lagoons. But beneath the beauty lies a hard arithmetic: the country relies on imports for the vast majority of what people eat, including much of the rice, flour, oils, meat, and fresh produce on shop shelves.
Hotels and resorts, serving international visitors, demand a consistent supply of high-quality fruit, vegetables, meat and eggs. When import costs rise, those costs ripple straight through to local markets. Fresh, healthy food begins to look like a tourist commodity rather than a basic right.
Households with modest incomes compensate the only way they can: cheaper, energy-dense processed foods; fewer fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s a pattern seen across many Small Island Developing States, and Seychelles is no exception.
“Just produce more locally” sounds simple. On Seychelles, it’s not. Smallholder farmers and home gardeners face a tough combination:
On top of that, farmers contend with the cost of imported seed, fertiliser, irrigation gear and fuel. For many, agriculture is a side activity rather than a stable livelihood.
The result: Seychelles imports food not because it wants to, but because its land and water limitations make traditional agriculture extremely challenging.
Recognising these challenges, the Seychellois government has built a policy framework that puts food and nutrition security front and centre.
Food and Nutrition Security Policy
The National Food and Nutrition Security Policy commits Seychelles to reducing vulnerability to external food shocks, improving access to safe, nutritious food, and building more resilient local food systems that can withstand climate change.
Agricultural investment and climate-smart programmes
Through its agricultural investment plans and partnerships with agencies like FAO and UNDP, Seychelles is investing in:
The country also participates in regional initiatives with other Indian Ocean states, sharing knowledge and accessing climate finance to support resilient agriculture and fisheries.
All of this creates a strong enabling environment. But to really shift the balance from imports toward local food, Seychelles needs practical, modular systems that farmers and communities can put on the ground quickly - even on very small, marginal plots.
That’s where partnerships with Feed An Island, Crop Circle Farms & Gardens, and Feed An Island Crop Circle Chickens can make a real difference.
Why sustainable local agriculture is non-negotiable
Seychelles will always import some food. The goal isn’t autarky; it’s resilience. Growing more food locally - especially fresh vegetables, herbs, eggs and some animal protein - has multiple benefits:
To get there on tiny plots and thin soils, Seychelles needs ultra-efficient systems that stack functions, integrate livestock, and treat water and nutrients as precious loops, not disposable inputs. That’s the design logic behind Crop Circle farms, gardens and chicken systems.
1. Crop Circle farms & gardens: more food on less land
Crop Circle Farms use circular and spiral layouts to grow far more per square metre than traditional straight rows. Raised, curved beds radiate from a centre point, allowing:
On Seychellois plots of less than an acre, a Crop Circle Garden can turn “too small to matter” into a serious food engine, producing continuous harvests of leafy greens, root crops, herbs, peppers, tomatoes and more.
These systems are designed to work with:
For Seychelles, that means more food with less water and fewer imported inputs—exactly what national strategies are aiming for.
Instead of factory-style sheds with thousands of birds crammed on filthy floors, Crop Circle Chickens are kept in a circular free-range sanctuary:
In the centre of this circle: a spiral vegetable garden.
As chickens move around the outer ring, they:
Their droppings can be composted or brewed into compost tea, providing a rich, organic nutrient source for the spiral vegetable beds
Climbing plants - such as pole beans, cucumbers or gourds - can be grown up the fence, creating a living wall that:
Field models of Crop Circle Chicken Farms show that a circular system with around 300 birds can produce tens of thousands of eggs per year and several tons of vegetables per season when well-managed—an enormous output from a very compact footprint.
For Seychelles, that means:
Feed An Island can adapt this blueprint into “Crop Circle Chicken Kits” customised for Seychellois realities: local breeds or hybrids, locally available materials, and crop mixes that match island tastes and climate.
A Seychelles–Feed An Island–Crop Circle partnership could unfold in stages:
1. Pilot micro-farms and chicken circles
2. Training and co-design
3. Scaling through policy and finance
If this vision is realised, Seychellois food security will no longer hinge quite so tightly on ships and containers. Instead, it will rest increasingly on thousands of small, living circles: vegetables spiralling out of good soil, chickens circling them with quiet clucks, and families buying fresh, local food that their own neighbours helped to grow.