Agricultural output has fallen dramatically in Haiti over the past two decades, increasing poverty levels in the countryside, home to some 5 million of the country’s 8 million people. Nevertheless, a variety of agriculture and livestock-based activities show promising prospects to add value and generate more income and jobs in rural areas.
For example, Haiti is the world’s leading producer of vetiver, the root of a tall grass that yields an expensive essential oil prized by perfume makers in Europe. More broadly, experience in Haiti has shown that the adoption of improved farming inputs and techniques has boosted production and natural resource conservation in areas where they have been introduced.
Building on studies of Haiti’s emerging rural supply chains, the new program will strengthen the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR by its French acronym) by investing in existing research and extension centers and promoting public-private cooperation. Knowledgeable members of producer associations will be included in steering committees to ensure the relevance and accountability of the research and extension programs.
Four MARNDR extension centers located in different regions of Haiti (Dondon in the north, Lévy in the southwest, Baptiste in the Central Plateau and Savanne Zombi in the southeast) will be rehabilitated and equipped and their staff trained to implement 12 research and dissemination programs with collaboration with participants of key rural supply chains.
The extension centers will work on botanical collections to improve planting stock; production of high-value fruits such as avocados, mangoes and citrus; horticultural marketing and processing, coffee pest and disease control, propagation of disease-resistant banana varieties that also serve as shade trees for coffee; garden and root crops; corn and beans, essential oils and livestock.
A second component of the program will bolster Haiti’s capacity to detect and control key pests and diseases affecting plants and animals in the priority supply chains; improve quarantine controls at airports, ports and border crossings; run quality control, compliance and certification systems; and carry out specific phyto-zoo-sanitary campaigns.
The program will help the MARNDR boost its capacity to make public investments in rural supply chains by providing financing to train staff in strategic management, human resources and operations management and information management. The ministry and four associations representing producers, processors and exporters of coffee, essential oils, livestock and mangoes will also collaborate on developing national competitiveness strategies.
The supply chain program is expected to help tens of thousands of Haitian farmers, technicians, transportation entrepreneurs, processors, suppliers and exporters. As part of the program, a $500,000 grant from the Japanese Poverty Reduction Fund will help link rural producer groups and entrepreneurs to market opportunities, including services to develop business plans and to identify financing sources.
Investments made under the program will complement other rural development projects financed by the IDB and various international agencies and donors in Haiti. IDB loans also support flood prevention and extensive road rehabilitation to better connect farmers with markets. A loan for watershed management is currently in preparation.
The new loan is for 40 years, with a 10-year grace period. Annual interest rates will be 1 percent during the first decade and 2 percent thereafter.
Source: iadb.org