Haitian Farmers Boost Food Production

Port-au-Prince, August 22 (RHC)-- A United Nations plan to combat high food prices in Haiti has yielded fruit by significantly boosting production, making food available at lower cost and increasing farmers’ incomes. According to a UN report, the $10.2 million plan to distribute and multiply quality seeds was being carried out, at the Haitian government’s request, by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with financing from the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD).

Among the results achieved, FAO estimates that quality bean seeds from Guatemala, procured and distributed to poor and vulnerable farmers for the 2008 winter planting season for $300,000, have produced $5 million in bean crops.

The UN report says that the program was critical for Haiti, where the impact of rising food prices has been so severe that it triggered riots in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in April 2008. Four successive and devastating hurricanes in August and September 2008 meant the seeds poor farmers had saved were either washed away or eaten because people were so hungry.

The UN plan helped increase FAO seed stocks in the country so Haiti could have more quality seeds to distribute in case farmers lose their stocks again during this year’s hurricane season, which is now under way. Almost 250,000 smallholder and landless farmers have or will receive adapted quality seeds through the program, which will also provide basic tools and advice or training via written material and radio broadcasts on best cultivation techniques.