HAITI: Once-Vibrant Farming Sector in Dire Straits

A petition recently submitted to the René Préval government by students of the Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine (FAMV) department at Haiti's State University calls for a programme spanning the country's 10 departments to increase technical and expert assistance, give subsidies to the agriculture and fishing sector, promote egg and chicken-farming projects to ease reliance on Dominican imports, a nationwide campaign to provide agricultural credits to peasants and an incremental raising of tariffs on foreign agricultural products to benefit Haitian farmers.

Other points of the petition deal with strengthening environmental protection, improving access to social services and higher education for agronomy students, and supporting them to work in the field so that Haiti can develop its own well of local expertise. Of the 420,000 tonnes of rice Haitians consume yearly, 340,000 tonnes are imported. Of the 31 million eggs the Haitian population eats monthly, 30 million are imported from the Dominican Republic. About 80 percent of farmers earn less than 135 dollars a year.

"We understand that it is not just a single person" who has caused these problems, Stanley Belizaire, a fifth-year FAMV student, told IPS. He said that people must "get together to change or improve the agricultural system and give a new orientation to this country."

Before 1950, Haiti produced more than 80 percent of its own food and exported coffee, cocoa, meat and sugar. Since then, political instability, among other factors, has made the development of Haitian agriculture a low priority.

Dictatorships supported by Haiti's small elite have been preoccupied with plunder and repression, while popular governments have often been preoccupied with survival, and fending off coups d'etat.

By the 1980s and 1990s, a huge amount of international pressure had been placed on Haiti to reduce its tariffs and open most of its markets to the world. This process has strengthened a demographic shift in which poor rural populations, out of work, have moved to urban slums, often working as street vendors. To reenergise Haiti's rural economy, many analysts believe the government itself must intervene in order to create the space for jobs.

In a recent interview with a Canadian newspaper, the well-known Haitian political activist Patrick Elie explained the difficulties that Haiti faces in building national production.

"Roads in Haiti are difficult to maintain because of our limited means, but also because of the topography of the country: mountains, running water because of deforestation, and so forth," he said.

"More importantly, the strength of the mobilisation we had when [Jean-Bertrand] Aristide was elected in 1990 has been broken twice. During Préval's first presidency, there was more interference. We have had no continuity. You don't build infrastructure in two days, not even over one mandate. It requires a national plan that holds over a quarter or half a century. If you get clobbered every time you move forward, then you're constantly wasting money. Nothing ever gets finished."

Haiti's forced reliance on neo-liberal policies makes change all the more difficult. According to one current government official, more than 800 NGOs work parallel with the agriculture ministry, but most define their own priorities. With many in the private sector preferring to import foods rather than invest in local agriculture, if change is to occur, the government will need to develop the means and plans for the incubation of a revitalised agricultural economy.

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