Haitian agriculture in a bind as planting season approaches

Agriculture accounts for a third of Haiti’s gross domestic product, and agriculture is vital to the domestic food supply of the earthquake-ravaged nation. Before the earthquake that killed 200,000 people struck, sixty percent of Haitians were working in some agricultural field. Now, as a result of the earthquake, more than a million Haitians are homeless and the food supply is threatened in a country that struggled to feed itself before the earthquake hit.

Voice of America (VOA) online reports that the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes that if farmers miss the spring planting season, “the country will be dependent on international food aid for a much longer period of time.” This is because the spring season yields 60 percent of all the crops in the country. According to FAO Emergency Response Manager Alexander Jones, who spoke to the VOA for their article, ‘“If we miss [the spring season], we will be dependent on food aid for a much longer time [.]”’

VOA reports that the UN “urgently” needs fertilizer, seeds, feed and animal vaccines and other agriculture equipment to meet the nation’s planting and agricultural needs before the planting window closes in April. The UN believes meeting these needs now is important for the country’s “long term recovery.” If the spring season is missed farmers will be forced to plant during the summer months, which in turn means that harvest would be delayed until early 2011.

Thus far the UN has requested $562 million in emergency assistance “for Haiti for six months.” While the FAO has requested $23 million for agriculture projects, VOA reports that only “seven percent of that funding has been pledged or received.” Jones told VOA that he would ask for $60 million for the FAO to make it through the end of 2010.

To read the Voice of America article click here.
To read a pervious US Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog post on Haiti, click here.

Posted: 02/11/10