Even before the devastating January 2010 earthquake, Haiti was one of the poorest and most food-insecure countries on earth. A majority of Haitians live in rural areas and depend on agricultural livelihoods, but neither the government nor the international community has paid sufficient attention to agriculture, leaving the countryside increasingly marginalized. Trade liberalization has exposed farmers to competition from subsidized US rice exports and made consumers vulnerable to volatile global food prices. Agriculture must have a central place in post-earthquake reconstruction, with an emphasis on improving small-scale farmers’ access to resources, so as to boost their incomes and productivity, particularly with regard to staple food crops.
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