BOX 4.1 WELTHUNGERHILFE IN HAITI


For almost 40 years, Welthungerhilfe has been active in Haiti, sup- porting partners and projects in the areas of agroforestry and water- shed management, improvement of rural infrastructure (irrigation and roads), disaster preparedness, and strengthening civil society. In 2011, the organization commissioned an external impact anal- ysis of 10 years’ programming in Haiti’s North-West Department, one of the most food-insecure regions in the country.


multiple heirs share an interest in their land, which leads to continu- ing fragmentation of land holdings and weak land tenure. These con- ditions have made it easy for large-scale farmers as well as industrial and mining companies to acquire fertile lands (Cadre de Liaison Inter- ONG Haiti 2013). Given the poor quality of their holdings and the constant


Agriculture’s Role in Community Resilience Most of the poor and food insecure live in rural areas. Smallholder farmers face difficult structural limitations, and still need to buy most of their food (Glaeser, Horjus, and Strother 2011).2


Thus, agricultur-


al policies must play a key role in strengthening community resilience to hunger.


LOW PRODUCTIVITY, FRAGMENTED LAND HOLDINGS, UNSUSTAINABLE PRACTICES. Despite Haiti’s favorable growing climate, average cereal yields are much lower in Haiti than in its Caribbean neighbors Cuba and the Dominican Republic (Table 4.1). What explains Haitian farmers’ relatively low cereal yields? Most


farmers in Haiti are mountain peasants with small farms comprising several dispersed plots of land. Under Haiti´s land inheritance laws,


exposure to environmental and climatic hazards, most peasants focus on reducing risk rather than maximizing production as a strat- egy for survival and food security. To manage risk and spread out harvest cycles, they actively diversify land portfolios and cropping patterns. At the same time, demographic pressure and poverty force the rural population to engage in activities, such as deforestation, which increase its vulnerability to risk. The deforestation leads to environmental degradation, soil erosion, and water shortage. Fur- thermore, because of land shortages, farmers increasingly farm on steep slopes with particularly fragile soils—a practice that leads to further erosion and land degradation. Besides the declining size of land holdings and the high lev-


el of risk they are exposed to, small-scale producers are also con- strained by a lack of investment leading to low levels of agricultural technology and inadequate infrastructure, strong migration out of rural areas, difficulties in accessing appropriate markets, and weak representation in policy debates.


2


Out of 100 people who cannot meet their basic needs, 77 are in rural areas, 9 are in the greater Port- au-Prince metropolitan area, and 14 are in other urban areas. A 2007 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment found that rural households bought 68 percent of their food. These pur- chases equal 59 percent of their total expenditures (Glaeser, Horjus, and Strother 2011).


TABLE 4.1 AVERAGE CEREAL YIELDS IN CUBA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, AND HAITI, 1993–2011 Average cereal yields (kilograms / hectare) Country Cuba Dominican Republic Haiti Source: World Bank (2013a).


Notes: Cereal yield, measured as kilograms per hectare of harvested land, includes wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, rye, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, and mixed grains. Production data on cereals relate to crops harvested for dry grain only. Cereal crops harvested for hay or harvested green for food, feed, or silage and those used for grazing are excluded. The FAO allocates production data to the calendar year in which the bulk of the harvest took place.


1993 –1997 1,859 3,832 947 1998–2002 2,632 4,073 912 2003–2007 2,874 4,052 947 2008–2011 2,325 3,299 941


2013 Global Hunger Index | Chapter 04 | Building Community Resilience to Undernutrition


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