Pro-Huerta boosts activity level in Haiti following the earthquake
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 3, 2010, (IICA). The Pro-Huerta Program for the Production of Fresh Foods for Self-sufficiency, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Development (MARNDR), will boost its activities in those areas of the country affected by the January 12 earthquake, as well as in other departments that have received large numbers of displaced families.
Pro-Huerta Haiti is a multilateral cooperation project being promoted by the governments of Haiti, Argentina, Canada and Spain in close collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Ministry of Environment (MDE), the Secretariat of State for Literacy (SEA) and some 500 community organizations on the island.
Production systems will be upgraded to increase the number of families benefitting from the program by 50%, which will make more food available for their own consumption. Also, inasmuch as the number of people to be fed has grown in other departments of the country, seed distribution will also be expanded.
Argentina announced an increase in its contributions to the program, in the form of packets of seed and tilling tools. A first shipment consisting of 5,800 packets with twenty varieties of certified seeds, and two tons of legume seeds, arrived in Haiti.
In the coming weeks, another 10,000 packets and another ton of legume seeds are expected to arrive. Seventeen tons of maize, 18 tons of black beans and 600 kits of shovels, hoes and picks will follow.
A mission from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) of Argentina comprising three engineers, Daniel Diaz, David Arias Paz and Jose Francisco Zelaya, arrived in Haiti on February 23 to coordinate technical support for and the strengthening of Pro-Huerta.
The goal is to increase the cultivation of local crops such as maize, bananas, pigeon peas, black beans, sweet potato, cassava and papaya and distribute to them to families with the support of partner institutions and the governments involved.
The engineers are preparing a strategy for expanding the Pro-Huerta Program to the entire island. Plans call for reinforcing the technical team and strengthening ties with 500 community organizations and the 1,900 outreach workers, making it possible to increase from 11,000 to 17,000 the number of beneficiary families.
To avoid interruptions of the provision of assistance, the main activities will be carried out in close collaboration with different institutions in the areas covered by the program and the technical team will take a more active role.
The actions are focused on preventing a prolonged food security crisis, above all in the rural areas where the production capacity of beneficiaries will be increased.
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