New farmer alliance forms in Haiti

~~Adz:Left~~ PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – PEASANT farmers in Haiti have banded together to try to stop the country’s reliance on food importation.

According to Caribbean 360, the new alliance may consider going as far as putting up candidates for April’s parliamentary elections.

There have been a number of meetings and demonstrations across Haiti by peasant farmer groups over the past several months.

In December a demonstration involving 10 peasant organisations was held. Organisers state that the main objectives of the demonstration were to force the government to take effective measures to re-launch national agriculture production and to prioritise environmental protection as part of a national development plan.

Alliance Spokesperson Edith Remonvil stressed that the only way to definitively reduce the price of food items was by increasing national production. Remonvil also criticised the government’s existing medium-term economic development plans which are based on the World Bank-sponsored Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

“If the government continues to favour the plans prepared in the context of the PRSP, it is clear that nothing is really going to change,” said the Spokesperson.

A number of non-governmental organisations have supported the formation of the new alliance including the Haitian Platform to Advocate for an Alternative Development and Oxfam Intermon.