History of Agricultural Self-Reliance in Haiti

People often make the mistake of thinking that because Haiti is in such dire straits now, it must always have been that way. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and this is particularly the case with agriculture.

As historians Laurent Dubois and Deborah Jenson noted in an op-ed in the New York Times last year (“Haiti Can Be Rich Again,” January 8, 2012), “it is easy to forget that, for most of the 19th century, Haiti was a site of agricultural innovation, productivity and economic success.”

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Drought, Poor Harvest to Worsen Haiti Food Crisis - WFP

A boy from a family made homeless by the 2010 earthquake stands inside one of
385 informal tent cities in the Delmas suburb of Port-au-Prince, on April 18, 2013.
REUTERS/Marie AragoReprint from Thomson Reuters Foundation

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - An estimated 1.5 million Haitians face hunger because of poor harvests and rising food prices, as the Caribbean nation continues to reel from a series of natural disasters, says the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

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Transforming Agroforestry in Haiti

Timote Georges is Co-Founder of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance.

Reprint from the Clinton Foundation website and 2012 Annual Report

Growing up on a farm in Haiti, I saw my father working very hard but having a difficult time making a good living. I eventually realized that he was working without any technical support, and I decided to study agronomy so that I could provide that support to other farmers. I also came to understand that improving farming techniques would not be enough, because any progress could be lost with just one storm and the resulting flood caused by only two percent tree cover throughout the country. My path was set early on to try and tackle both issues through agroforestry.

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Helping Farmers Fight the Rising Food Crisis in Haiti

Reprint from Huffington Post Canada

Even after three years of rebuilding from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, progress continues to be met with stories of difficulty and more bad news. Last week the U.N. issued a report warning that 1.5-million Haitians -- mostly farmers and their families -- are at risk of serious malnutrition because of crop losses due to last year's record-breaking storm season. Tropical Storm Isaac and Hurricane Sandy were the worst of a series of back-to-back storms in late 2012, the result of which was a record deluge of rain that destroyed between 40 and 90 per cent of Haiti's crops, depending on the region. However, the success of one group of farmers holds promise for helping to address and resolve the malnutrition crisis.

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The Mystery of Disappearing Foreign Aid to Haiti: Where Did the Money Go?

Tent camp in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince following the 2010 earthquake. Photo
by Sebastian Petion.

In a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, authors Jake Johnston and Alexander Main set out to track the $1.15 billion pledged to Haiti by the U.S. government following the January 2010 earthquake. They found that the "vast majority" of the money went straight to U.S. companies and NGOs, with only 1 percent going directly to Haitian companies. I would like to contribute to this discussion by sharing an excerpt from my book “The Haiti Experiment” in which I set out to track how $13 billion was spent in the 29 months following the earthquake. This is the total amount of money from all sources, including the U.S. and other countries, that was actually spent assisting Haiti. And like Johnston and Main, I content that most of that money ended up back in the countries it came from—in the hands of private contractors and NGOs.

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Debate on Food Security and Deforestation Becomes a Global Call to Action

By David Rothschild / Skoll World Forum

A few weeks ago the Skoll World Forum hosted an online debate on how increased global consumption can be balanced with sustainability. The debate asks how a rapidly growing world that is ever consuming can hope to feed everyone, and at the same time address the deforestation that is emitting massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and destroying the world’s greatest tropical forests. Many contributors made very strong points—even contradicting one another in their approaches and ideas.

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President Clinton Visits Smallholder Farmers Alliance in Haiti

President Bill Clinton and members of an agricultural investment delegation
being given a tour of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance tree nursery in Haiti by SFA
President and co-founder Hugh Locke (right). SFA photo by Sebastian Petion.Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) tree nursery near the Haitian city of Gonaives was one of several sites visited by President Bill Clinton earlier this week as he led an agricultural investment delegation of key executives and investors to highlight the country’s agricultural sector.

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The FAO Must do More to Promote Food as a Basic Human Right

Green shoots … Roadside vegetable stalls in Mumbai. The FAO is placing a renewed emphasis on food security as a human right. Photograph: Punit Paranjpe/Reuters

By Olivier De Schutter / Guardian Poverty Matters Blog

Should the UN's leading food security agency prioritise helping countries boost their agricultural production with subsidised chemical fertiliser, or promote ecological farming practices? Should it help countries protect themselves against import surges, or open them to the global marketplace? Should it work exclusively with national ministries of agriculture, or demand inter-ministerial and civil society participation?

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