Agriculture in Haiti is dead; there are few farmers left-- too much heartache associated; little irrigation, access to seeds, fertilizer, but most importantly unfair competition from the U.S. which floods the Haitian market with cheap subsidized products.
Believe it or not, Haiti was once a bread basket! A self-sufficient producer that could feed its people. But in the 1980s domestic agriculture came under the threat of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as they discouraged investments in Haiti's agriculture. Then in 1995 former President Aristide as part of the conditions for him to be reinstated with the backing of the US government agreed to decrease tariff rates to the lowest level in all of the hemisphere to 3%. This was the final nail in the coffin for Haitian farmers. This further devastated and sent domestic agriculture into a tailspin. Instead of planting seeds, Haiti's poor were to fill factories in Port-au-Prince making T-shirts, baseballs and jeans for Western consumption. But the jobs were not enough. People toiled in the city, in the hopes that more work would come but with each coup or security breach fewer and fewer factories remained to provide much needed jobs.
This former bread basket is a net food importer, 75% of all food is imported according to the US Department of Agriculture. Haiti cannot feed itself and because the US corners the market they are susceptible to rising food prices.
President Rene Preval will meet with President Obama tomorrow. It is expected that over the course of their discussion he will bring up Haiti's long term goal to rebuild its agricultural sector to lessen its reliance on food aid and cheap imports. It will be interesting to see how these two leaders deal with this potentially contentious issue.
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