Haiti's Plight in Agriculture

It’s been a week since the devastating earthquake and aftershock tremors swept Haiti and as the search for survivors winds down, the banks reopen and the ill-fated country ascertains the extent of damage it becomes apparent that the hurricane was just one of a series of disasters to sweep the country in recent years.

Even before the devastating earthquake struck, despite being the only country to succeed in a slave rebellion (Haiti had to pay to France 150million francs in exchange for liberty), obtaining an expanse of arable land and the potential for a successful tourist-generated economy, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Haiti has not had a period of sustained economic growth for over 20 years and almost 850,000 of its residents are assisted by the World Food Programme. Not to mention the 85% of Haitians who live on less than $1 US per day. The earthquake has profoundly exacerbated their already adverse poverty.

Due to their dire economic situation Haitians resorted to cutting down wood for coal to make mere pennies and provide basic utilities. But this mass deforestation has left Haiti with severe top soil erosion, causing there once arable land-initially their main source of livelihood- to become infertile. Calamitous flooding in 2002, 2003 (twice), 2006 and 2007 was also a consequence of mass deforestation as the remaining forest could no longer protect the environment and absorb the water. Hence, more than 70% of Haiti's agricultural land, particularly that of the rice farmers’ was devastated.

The Unreported World documentary called ‘Haiti: The Island that Ate Itself’ was aired by Channel 4 last year. It highlighted the astonishing difference between prices of locally grown food and that of outside competitors: locally grown Haitian rice was found to be double that of US imported rice. Unsurprisingly, 80% of rice sold in Haiti comes from the USA. This undercuts local producers because American farmers are mechanised and benefit from local subsidies whereas local farmers require mass man power to produce adequate crops. Therefore Haiti’s agriculture is unable to thrive due to lack of support for local farmers and their agriculture industry is destroyed; making them poorer and ever more dependent on cheap imports and free hand outs from foreign nations.

As poverty increases, many rural poor, unable to survive on agriculture move to cities like Port-au-Prince in search of work, but a scarcity of jobs puts even more pressure on local cities, resulting in more crime and hunger. Many find themselves unemployed in cities, surviving on rations provided by foreign nations.

Ultimately it’s a vicious cycle of poverty and dependency. To create definitive change in a country where poverty affects 8 in 10 people and food hand-outs are the ‘norm’ there must be huge investment for at a sustained period of time to tackle economic and social issues, agricultural re-development in particular may be the answer to Haiti’s problems.