Haiti - Agriculture : 2018, a dark year for the agricultural sector
In his message of the new year, Agronomist Talot Bertrand, Secretary General of the Haitian NGO "Promotion for Development" (PROMODEV), an organization committed to sustainable development in Haiti said that 2018 had been a dark year among others in terms of loss of human resources recalling that "[...] 6 Engineers-Agronomists, 2 senior executives and the former Administrator of the Ministry of Agriculture, Gabriel Pierre-Louis have died [...]".
In addition, he is concerned about the "[...] triggering of the retirement process for more than 180 senior agronomists without taking into account the start of the mechanism for transferring skills to young people". Recalling that "the profession is learned in the shadow of an elder", he wonders how the Ministry of Agriculture will work "with novices without field experience..."
He also deplores the absence "[...] of an indicator that can justify changes in crop yields and the performance of the farming system." over the past year, pointing out that field surveys "have shown that farmers are coping with the negative impacts of several inhibiting factors such as : drought, pests, plant diseases, animal diseases lack of technical structures and proximity services."
Despite this gloomy situation, he hopes that policymakers will understand that "Haiti's land is rich in human resources, water, sun energy and fertile soil" and that they will take steps to ensure that the Haitian agriculture sector can still play its role as a "locomotive of economic growth to combat extreme poverty."
