30336: Jaffe (reply) Re: 30320: Kathleen (reply) (info) 30312 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JoAnn Jaffe <joann.jaffe@uregina.ca>

The answers haven't really changed all that much. If Haiti is going
to be able to have a vibrant rural economy with a flourishing
agricultural sector, it is going to have to "add value" to a good
portion of its output at home. Over the long term, unprocessed
agricultural goods have declining terms of trade in relation to
industrial goods, so even if Haiti managed to have good yields and
good land productivity, it would still have problems in terms of
earning receipts capable of supporting the mass of people on the
land. ( Even North American farmers struggle to stay on the land and
must continue to get big or get out--and this is with massive
subsidies, at least where US farmers are concerned). This means
developing rural industry, or at least developing industry based in
Haiti-produced agricultural products in which rural people can find
employment and also share in the just returns to their production.
Clearly from what I am saying here, part of the solution lies not
just in what is produced and transformed, but in how the fruits of
that production and transformation are distributed.

People are talking about biofuels--Lyall mentioned oilpalm for
biofuel, but another really interesting area would be the production
of edible oils--coconut oil, palm oil, even avocado oil--particularly
if one were talking about this on a small farm basis, that might, for
example, integrate a cooperative feedlot with the small processing
facility or use the byproducts combined with bagasse from sugar
refineries to make a feed supplement. Haiti currently imports over US
$70 Million in edible oils per year (FAO, 2007). These oils are also
usable in the production of soaps and cosmetics. I believe that such
a project is doable, IF it includes the type of formation in project
management, cooperation, conflict resolution, and development as is
promoted by CECI (www.ceci.ca) in Haiti and elsewhere. Obviously this
calls for a much longer discussion, but I throw this out as fodder
for rumination.


JoAnn Jaffe