Chavannes Jean Baptiste réclame une aide pour tous les agriculteurs haïtiens

Jeudi, 17 avril 2008 09:53

Chavannes Jean Baptiste réclame une aide pour tous les agriculteurs haïtiens

Le leader du Mouvement des Paysans de Papaye (MPP), Chavannes Jean Baptiste, accueille favorablement la décision du chef de l’état de renforcer la production nationale en vue faire face à la crise alimentaire.
Il se prononce pour une diversification de la production agricole estimant que le riz seul ne peut résoudre les besoins alimentaires de la population haïtienne. " Le riz seul ne peut résoudre la crise alimentaire du pays, il faut encourager la culture des aliments produits localement dont le maïs, le petit mil, la patate, le haricot etc..", ajoute t-il.
Chavannes Jean Baptiste fait remarquer que 90 % des agriculteurs haïtiens ne produisent pas le riz qui est cultivé dans des rares régions telles la Vallée de l’Artibonite, la plaine des Cayes et une région du plateau central. Le dirigeant du MPP souhaite que le chef de l’état entreprend des discussions avec les organisations paysannes afin de définir les modalités pour un renforcement de la production agricole.
De plus, M. Jean Baptiste regrette que le chef de l’état ait abordé uniquement le problème des engrais chimiques attirant l’attention sur la vertu des engrais naturels. Selon Chavannes Jean Baptiste le sol dans l’Artibonite est épuisé en raison de l’utilisation des engrais chimiques et du mauvais état des canaux d’irrigation. M. Jean Baptiste soutient que la culture des légumes est plus facile que la culture du riz.
Le parlement doit jouer son rôle dans la relance de la production agricole nationale déclare M. Jean Baptiste qui rappelle que seulement 4 % du budget était alloué à l’agriculture. Il fait remarquer que le budget alloué au cours de ces dernières années a servi au fonctionnement du ministère de l’agriculture, " les paysans n’ont rien bénéficié de ce montant".
Par ailleurs, le chef de l’état s’est entretenu hier avec des importateurs en vue d’envisager une baisse des prix de plusieurs autres denrées telles le maïs, l’huile, la farine et le fer.

Nèg saa konn sa lap di wi.
Gouvènman an te dwe konsilte l si yo vle devlope agrikilti vre.

Colo,
Vos pronunciamentos dérangent.
Il ne faut pas lancer des remarques négatives, seulement.
Discutez les points et rejettez les, si vous le pouvez.

Vous ne pouvez pas dire que Chavannes est incompétent.
C'est un vrai leader paysan qui a organisé les gens de Papaye d'une façon inédite.
Il est reconnu par les paysans et par des organisations internationales pour le travail qu'il a accompli pendant de longues années.
Il est recipiendaire d'assistance technique du gouvernement brésilien.

On ne parle pas, ici, de politique, mais bien de la relève de la production agricole où il a prouvé ses capacités.

Chavannes Jean-Baptiste est un agronome.
Recipiendaire du "goldman Environmental Prize"


[url=http://www.goldmanprize.org/]




"I devote my life to building a green Haiti, a Haiti that offers an abundance of life to all of its children."
Islands & Island Nations 2005





Chavannes Jean-Baptiste

Haiti
Sustainable Development

A Persistent Leader
Agronomist Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, 58, founded the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) in 1973 to teach the people of Haiti the principles of sustainable agriculture. It has become one of the most effective environmental peasant movements in Haitian history, successfully fostering economic development, environmental protection and individual survival. Jean-Baptiste carries out his work despite Haiti's extremely volatile political climate. He has survived several assassination attempts. Death threats forced him into exile from 1993 to 1994.
A Flood of Challenges in a Barren Landscape
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere; 80 percent of the people live in abject poverty, 53 percent are illiterate and two-thirds of the population relies on a shrinking number of subsistence farm plots for food. Once covered with lush tropical forest, Haiti today is massively deforested, with trees covering only two percent of the land. Floods and landslides, exacerbated by this deforestation, wash down Haiti's mountains and destroy everything in their path. (In September 2004, tropical storm Jeanne killed an estimated 3000 people.) As the soil erodes, once-fertile land becomes barren, leading to food shortages. Desperate to earn a living, many rural families resort to felling the few remaining trees to sell as charcoal, their immediate survival needs outweighing their interest in the country's long-term environmental health.
A Growing Union
Jean-Baptiste has long understood that Haiti's future and its people's economic well-being depend on protecting the country's rugged and sacred mountains and preserving its fertile topsoil. For more than 30 years, Jean-Baptiste has toiled alongside his fellow peasants to reach these goals. Building on Haiti's traditional community working groups, or gwoupman, the MPP engages more than 60,000 community members in sustainable agriculture, including 20,000 women and 10,000 youth. Jean-Baptiste and his colleagues train farmers to use water-saving drip irrigation systems, natural fertilizers and pesticides in place of toxic commercial products, and to build low-cost erosion-prevention structures. The resulting increase in long-term crop yields has significantly decreased dependence on imported foods, reduced malnutrition rates in children, protected vital water supplies and helped decrease overall poverty levels in central Haiti.
One Tree at a Time
To Jean-Baptiste and the MPP, every tree counts. Together MPP members have planted more than 20 million fruit and forest trees to help stabilize Haiti's fragile soil and provide access to more food sources. Over the years, many have argued that planting these trees is pointless given that so many will be cut down for fuel. Jean-Baptiste remains undeterred; his dream is to foster a green Haiti for the next generation. His strategy includes increasing access to alternative fuel sources. This has led to the launch of a solar power initiative that includes workshops on building solar-powered battery chargers and establishing a small manufacturing facility for solar products.
What's Next
With the most recent change of political leadership, Jean-Baptiste chairs the country's new council on peasant issues. Among the pressing agenda items is addressing Haiti's deforestation crisis.
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Bon mwen pa konn anyen an agrikilti mwen pap komante sou konpetans chavannes jean baptiste men se youn sel bagay ke mwen ka di nan sa se pa tout fwa se youn mmoun ki etidye nan iniversite ki ka jwen solutyon a youn pwoblem.

mwen tap panse a moun ki di :le pouvoir aux plus capables yo lotrejou kote yo tap montre nan televisyon youn teknisyen an radio kominikatyon ki fè youn eksperyans ak youn machin ki emet ond radyo e ki ka geri kansè yo di ke nonm saa pa janm etidye medsinn oken kote ni li pa youn cherchè,men li genyen kansè epi li chita nan laboratwa lakay li e li fè eksperyans ak youn frankfeurter ki genyen kelk molecule de fer e li montre ke radio ond yo ka chofe frankfurter jis li chanje li.li di si chalè sa ka chanje strikti moleculè viann frankfurter li ka chanje strikti ou detwi selul kanser yo tou san li pa detwi lot selul ki sen yo.se konsa youn syantis ki tande sa li pran fè eksperyan sou rat e yo remarke ke sa neg la di detwi tissu kansere ka rat yo.

mwen pale de eksperyans saa pou montre se pa tout fwa se moun ki genyen diplom nan youn chan daktivite se yo ki ka resoud pwoblem nan aktivite saa.mwen sonje mwen tap li liv otobiografi de jeneral Dwight Daid Enshenower kote li te di ke diran la dexyem gè mondyal genyen youn kote ki te genyen youn batay desisif pou fos alye yo se youn serjan ki te fè plan pou detwi fos alman ki te kantonne nan zonn la.Fok youn moun pa meprise konesans ke yon moun genyen nan pratik.Pafwa genyen injenyè ki konn chaje ak teyori e se youn kontremet ki resoud anpil pwoblem nan konstriktyon.

Il est question d'une personne qui a fait une usurpation de titres en vue de diffuser des informations calomnieuses sur nos dirigeants.

Quelles sont les informations calomnieuses?


Colo,
Vous persistez à induire le monde en erreur.
Vous salissez un haitien conséquent.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haiti’s economic future

By Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, October 1995


As a contribution to the discussion on Haiti’s economic future perhaps people would be interested to read the following responses made by Chavannes Jean-Baptiste to questions during his visit to the UK last October, 1995.
Introduction


In the early 1970s peasants in the Central Plateau region of Haiti began organising and working together, and the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) was born. Forced to maintain a low profile for years, the MPP expanded rapidly after Duvalier’s fall in 1986. Links with other peasant organisations were made, and in March 1991 the National Peasant Movement of the Papay Congress (MPNKP) brought together representatives of over 100,000 organised peasants. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste was the founder of the MPP and is the spokesperson for the MPNKP.

On the structural adjustment programme

The Americans returned Aristide with what we call a poisoned packet. The neo-liberal plan envisages the elimination of the small peasantry in order to develop large farms for agro-industry. US policy aims to destroy Haitian food production. That is their plan, but we have own ideas. The basis of the MPP’s struggle is that Haiti should be able to determine its own policies in the area of food production, and indeed, everything else.

On the work of the peasant organisations

Before the coup all the structures and organisations of the MPP were in place, but now we are in a position where we are just beginning to build everything up again. If land, soil and water are not conserved we know the peasants cannot survive. The MPP is working on soil and water conservation, reforestation and improved productivity with natural fertilisers. The MPNKP has planted 8 million tree saplings this year.
Peasant producers are trying different approaches to the problems of the countryside. For example in the north east of the country the state owns a lot of land, and in response to pressure from the MPNKP just recently the government gave 6,000 carros to a peasant group (1carro equals 1.29 hectares). They are utilising the land in the following way: 1 carro has been allocated to each peasant for their individual use; 1,000 carro have been set aside for reforestation; and 2,000 carro have been allocated for collective use. There will be collective animal husbandry. Some land will be used for a school, a clinic and a sports field. They plan to establish collective farms with mills for grinding manioc (casava), a sugar cane refinery and collectively run schemes for the provision of credit and technical assistance.


On the national level

The solution is a national economic plan. Haiti was previously nearly self-sufficient but now we import 70-80% of the food we consume. Two hundred thousand tonnes of rice a year are needed to feed the nation. In the Artibonite region we could produce up to 140,000 tonnes if only irigation systems were set up. Then there is grain. We need 350- 400,000 tonnes each year—Haiti could produce this quantity within five years, and the country could be self-sufficient.
On development projects funded by foreign aid: There has been a focus, conditioned by international aid agencies, on highly labour intensive projects such as the repair of roads which is not a top priority for the peasants. The greatest effort should be spent in funding projects of reforestation, soil conservation and repairing irrigation systems.


On the USAID environmental programmes

USAID finances a lot of reforestation projects through the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF). These projects are centralised—they send trees out from the nurseries to people around the country without doing any consciousness raising around the issue of reforestation or providing any technical training. Peasants get given a little money to plant the trees but I think that in PADF’s own evaluation 80-90% of these trees don’t survive.

USAID also works through the CARE organisation which has reforestation programmes but they are not part of a larger agricultural programme. They try to show their environmental concern but in reality it doesn’t have any real impact that would support real development of production in the agricultural sector or development of the country in general.

USAID is doing things which have an impact on the environment. They want reforestation and they want people to plant coffee because they can see the dangers if Haiti has no trees. But one thing is certain—USAID is not interested in having Haiti produce. US-financed reforestation projects don’t produce real results in terms of the true protection of the land in terms of a holistic approach to sustainable development of the peasant sector.

Colo

mwen pa wè kote Chavannes di li se agronom non.Fok ou konnen peyi ya byen pou konprann anpil bagay.an dyo depi youn moun genyen youn ti konesans ou byen li ap travay nan youn aktivite ki relate a serten profesyon yo ba moun sa tit profesyon an;se konsa mwensonje te genyen youn serjan nan service sante lame dayiti ki te genyen sel farmasy Hinche tout moun te rele doktè men li pat janm di moun ke li se doktè, se konsa anploye SNEM peyisan te kon rele nou doktè.Genyen anpil moun ki edike tet yo nan serten metye.Nou genyen misisyen ki pa janm pase nan lekol misik.mwen genyen 2 sè mwen se youn fanm saj nan o kap ki akouche manman mwen.lontan pa genyen anpil ayisyen ki te ka ale ka doktè se remed fy grann nou manman nou te kon ba nou lè nou malad ,yo pat doktè poutan nou pat mouri.

Vous devez montrer où Chavannes combat le programme du président Preval.

Il semble que vous lui refusez le droit de commenter, alors que vous le faites.

Cet homme a entrepris à lui seul, contre les gouvernenemts des Duvaliers, d'instruire et d'améliorer les conditions de vie des paysans du plateau central.
Il a crée une organisation qui a assuré le support de milliers de familles.
Il est le chef d'un mouvement qui compte 100,000 membres.

Le gouvernement actuel continue seulement ce qu'il a entrepris depuis les années 70.

Pourquoi, est-il reconnu et appuyé par plusieurs organisations et gouvernements étrangers, alors que vous, son concitoyen, refusez de lui faire crédit?

Tout comme votre sortie contre les madan saras, il parait que vous pratiquez l'exclusion de certains. De quel droit pouvez-vous faire cela?

Voyez ce qu'il pense. Cela date de 2007.


Rural Haiti Has Rights Too!
Posted on November 14th, 2007 by Maria Aguiar

Categories: Haiti Local Food Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) Rethinking Aid


This week we received a letter from Chavannes Jean Baptiste, Executive Secretary of the Peasant Movement of Papaye, one of Grassroots International's partners in Haiti. His letter highlights the root causes of the ongoing neglect of rural communities in Haiti and the devastation in the countryside due to recent floods. Please read his words below:

Dear Grassroots International,
Thank you all very much for your concern for the situation that we are facing, and the difficulties that the Haitian people are living with as a result of the recent floods and Hurricane Noel.

Thank you also for your deep understanding of the root causes of the situation. The priorities of the neoliberal economic model put the entire planet at risk. But the small nations on the peripheries of the great economic powers, such as ours, are greatly more vulnerable than most.

Also, in Haiti, the elites who have maintained power since independence [in 1804] have failed.

Today the environmental situation is alarming and very dangerous. The entire country was affected by the recent floods - which in fact should not have caused so much devastation.

Hurricane Noel did not hit Haiti as hard as it did some neighboring countries but the devastation in its wake in Haiti has been enormous in all of the ten departments.

This is the first time that a hurricane, whose force was in fact fairly light, hit the entire country. Framers and rural communities have lost almost all of their crops and have lost many animals as well to the floods. This is a very grave situation - because even before - national agricultural production was only able to meet about one third of the food security needs of the nation.

The measures taken by the government to date have not given us much hope. What can one million Haitian gourdes (which are about U$ 28,000.00) do to meet the emergency needs of an entire department?

And the worst thing is that often times those who are most in need often receive no emergency support.

We need to immediately reactivate agricultural production while at the same time protecting the watersheds and continuing reforestation work.

But these activities do not figure into the priorities of the state - the national government. Many sectors of civil society are pressuring to make the environment a pressing national priority.

Meanwhile the government is planning for the production of agrofuels for export to the United States in the place of agricultural production for food. This is a battle that the peasant organizations have to wage to change the government's policy orientation.

It is important to find ways to support rehabilitation and reconstruction in rural communities -because of course it is most important to reactivate agricultural production and the protection of the environment.

The traditional international NGOs are working in collaboration with the government to give out emergency food aide and clothing in the cities and the zones that are nearest the larger cities. None of those efforts support reactivation of production or reconstruction in the countryside were support is most needed.

Cordially,

Chavannes Jean Baptiste, Executive Secretary, Mouvmann Peyizan Papay


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Sasaye,

Vous nous avez soumis une belle lettre ou Chavannes Jean Baptiste est en train de mendier comme les Boulos avaient l'habitude de faire pour leur centre de santé. Et tout le monde sait le reste. Il faut s'attendre bientot à le voir parmi les hommes les plus riches du pays.

Contrairement à ce que vous pensez, je n'ai pas de préjugés. Permettez-moi de vous présenter cet homme qui n'a meme pas le dizième des fonds alloués à Chavannes Jean Baptiste:

1. Enrayer l'érosion de la foi: rendre à l'homme et à la femme sa dignité d'enfant de Dieu
   
   
   
   
   
   • Formation de formateurs évangéliques
     
   • Formation permanente dans les communautés
     
   • Accompagnement des communautés ecclésiales de base des familles, des jeunes, des couples, des filles-mères
     
   • Retraites de groupes bibliques
     
   • Retraites spirituelles
     
   • Animation de groupes bibliques
     
   • Apostolat par le chant spirituel
     
   • Promotion de la justice et des droits humains
     

</li>
2. Enrayer l'érosion intellectuelle: alphabétiser, éduquer, créer un nseignement adapté en milieu rural
<li>

• Préscolaire
  
• Enseignement primaire
  
• Centre de nutrition
  
• Secondaire technique (en vue de former des entrepreneurs en milieu rural) maçonnerie, électricité, électronique, coupe et couture, cordonnerie, céramique, agriculture
  
• Bibliothèque publique
  

3. Enrayer l'érosion de la terre: développer l'agriculture et rendre les paysans acteurs de leur propre développement

• Construction de micro-barrages
  
• Aménagement de bassins-versants
  
• Captage de sources d'eau potable
  
• Gestion de l'eau
  
• Cultures maraîchères
  
• Pisciculture
  
• Pépinières
  
• Reboisement
  
• Boutique agricole semences, intrants, outils
  
• Services juridiques notariat, cadastre, état civil
  

4.Enrayer l'érosion de l'économie paysanne: amorcer des activités économiques et améliorer l'habitat

• Transformation et commercialisation des produits agricoles
  canne (jus, rapadou), fruits séchés
  (mangue, ananas), mais et millet (moulu), soja, miel
  
• Coopérative d'achat / vente / crédit / cautionnement
  
• Elevage de bovins, caprins, poulets
  
• Appui à la production
  
• Création d'emploi pour étudiants finissants de nos centres techniques secondaires
  
• Magasin communautaire (produits de premières nécessité)
  
• Amélioration de l'habitat
  
• Clinique médicale et pharmacie
  

</li>Voici les gens qu'il faut encourager dans le milieu rural.

http://www.vakansitil.com/projects.php

Si vous allez sur le site de MPP, leur bilan est vide:

http://www.mpphaiti.org/index.php

Alò, Chavann ap mandye lè l voye yon lèt bay "Grassroots international" pou l eksplike sitiyasyon peyizan yo?

Lan lèt Obama ke w pibliye a kisa lap fè lè l mande $25?

Messieurs encore discussion oiseuse Il a a prendre et a laisser autant dans la politique agricole de Chavannes que celle de Préval.

Avec ses 27500 Km2 autant en montagnes qu'en plaine irrigués et non irrigués haiti peut avoir au moins 3 recoltes sur la même parcelle. Sans apport de nutriments, et des rotations judicieuses entre les cultures la terre sera bien vite épuisée. Les différences entre engrais chimiques et naturels est la rapidité d'action et la teneur en nutriments par unité de volume. La capacité d'approvisionnement en engrais naturels est aussi a questionner, l,avantage c'est que si produit localement, c'est encore des emplois crées et des précieux dollars qui ne fuient pas nos côtes. Je préconise un MIX des 2 sources selon la culture et la nature des sols. A long terme on gagnerait avec le naturel et potentiellement la certification biologique de certains produits a haute valeur ajoutée ( Ex:fruits et légumes, herbes et épices fines, herbes médicinales pour l'exportation) pour le marché local et l'exportation. Il faut dabord nourrir la population mais aussi augmenter le revenu per capita agricole par l'accès aux devises extrangères par l'exportation de ces produits a haute valeur ajjoutée (pas necessairement en masse, mais par petites niches et en quantité limitée) la plus grande partie des terres productives devant assurer la sécurité alimentaire nationale avec production diversifiée. les terrres marginales desertique ou semi desertiques, tres montagneuses et sèches doivent être réservée a la production non-alimentaire comme le bois de chauffage, le ti-medeciyin ou jatropha pour la production de biodesel, et certains arbres fruitiersou autres arbustres ou plantes tolérant ces conditions comme le sisal ou l'aloes.

Sossis,

Merci pour votre réponse judicieuse.
Sans vérification des points de votre analyse, je suis satisfait que vous ayez considéré les propositions et soumis votre point de vue sans parti-pris.

Ce qui est important, c'est la recherche de moyens pour sortir notre pays de cet enfer.

Byenke atik saa parèt depi an 2005, tout pwoblèm ki te diskite lè saa montre ke peyizan ayisyen an te konnen sitiyasyon ki te pwal rive jodya akos de move jestyon pwodiksyon nasyonal la.
Sasaye

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the 214th Anniversary of the Ceremony of Bois Caiman, Haiti
Peasants unite to fight for national agricultural production and against dependence on foreign food aid
By Djems Olivier
August 23rd, 2005

A version of this piece originally appeared in AlterPresse

Categories: Haiti Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA) Rethinking Aid Sustainable Livelihoods.

More than 300 peasants from the departments of the South, the West, the Center and the Artibonite were assembled the 22 of August, 2005, in Petite Rive, Artibonite for the 214th anniversary of the Bois Caiman (Cayman Wood) ceremony.

In 1791 the Bois Caiman was the site of a nighttime ceremony which permitted a group of slaves to plan the launching of the Haitian war for independence from their French colonial rulers which eventually led to the formation of the first black republic.

Assembling at the Petite Rive of the Artibonite on this turning point date, the peasants wanted to discuss the future of national production, particularly rice, and at the same time to denounce the invasion of the national market by American rice, the neo-liberal politics of the International Monetary Fund and the pushing to one side of the peasant sector in Haitian affairs.

The peasants also denounced the enactment, starting on January 1, 2006, of the American Free Trade Zone accord, assembling 34 countries of the American continent, with the exception of Cuba.

Representatives at the meeting included members of the Claim Movement of the Artibonite Peasants, the Network of the Cooperative Associatons of Commerce, the Netowrk of Agricutural Production of the Lower-Artibonite and the National Platform of the Haitian Peasant's Organization.

Agricultural Production in the process of disappearing"

At this moment, agricultural production in the department of the Artibonite is in the process of disappearing. There are no irrigation canals and no drainage. The fertilizer market is in the hands of the middle class and the peasants need 100 to 200 gourdes to acquire one sack of fertilizer.

It's shameful," says Assancio Jacques of MOREPLA, the Peasant's movement for justice in the Artibonite. He affirmed that the State leaves the market to foreign traders who inundate the country with rice imported from the U.S., to the detriment of national production.

In 1985 the department of the Artibonite produced about 200,000 tons of rice. At the time, the Organization for the Development of the Artibonite Valley trained the peasants and provided them adequate means to produce.

According to the peasants, the ODVA has failed today at their mission and instead of supporting local farmer, clear the path for an American subcontracting company, a certain T & S Rice S.A.

This company employs only 300 Haitian workers, while the production of rice involves, in the Artibonite, 80,000 producers, 28,000 agricultural workers and 400 mill owners.

The participants of the August 22nd assmbly, who declare themselves not to be in a position to compete with American rice, call on Haitian authorities to respond with a view to cutting short this practice which will only drive the country into the abyss and totally destroy national production.

"No to the ZLEA, no to neo-liberal politics, no to the occupation of the Haitian market by the T & S Rice company, yes to an equitable agricultural reform, long live national production, long live the rice of the Artibonite," chanted the peasants and managers coming from the sector, in chorus.

"It is time that the peasant classes have a voice in the big decisions facing the nation. It's for this reason that we join our forces on this 22nd of August to defend national production, defend the dignity of the country to ensure the future of our children," they declared.

The land should belong to those who cultivate it.
The coordinator of the PLANOPA, Vilfranc Cenare, pointed out that Haitian peasants have always been scrapped (like garbage), treated like poor parents while they represent the heart of the national economy. Cenare, who has struggled until now to understand the dichotomy between peasant and city dweller persisting in Haiti since 1804, has judged that this sector is the most exploited of the country.

"The Haitian peasant, just like the other layers of Haitian society, lives by imported products. There is no food security, agricultural production is neglected and Haitians are prey to all sorts of illnesses, due to the fact that they consume genetically modified food products, " said the director of the PLANOPA.

"We, the peasants who represent 80% of the population, have decided today to divorce ourselves from the practice of division. We should form, from this moment a single social force in order to rebuild our dear Haiti and we are aware of the historic role that we should play in the fight for the change of this country," he continued.

"There is no peasant without land and the land should belong to those who cultivate it.

We should unite to reclaim our right to participate in the management of our country and demand, of the State, an equitable agricultural reform," he added.

The unresolved problem of agrarian reform

The director of the Peasant Movement of Papaye, Chavannes Jean Baptiste, for his part, estimates that the agricultural question will remain one of the major problems of the country whose solution will be a long time in coming. This question, he clarified, was brought up by the emperor, Jean Jacques Dessalines, at the time of the verification of the titles of ownership and let to his assassination, the 17th of October, 1806.

The problem of the distribution of land has existed, then, since 1804 with the fragmentation of society into large and small landowners. This division largely contributed to the degredation of the national environment. According to Chavannes Jean Baptiste, after independence, the Haitian population was composed of 500 thousand inhabitants and at that time agricultural reform was much easier. However, he said, quarrels arose which served as obstacles to the resolution once and for all of the problem of land distribution.

To resolve this situation, Jean Baptiste proposed an agricultural reform that will not be devoted to the distribution of land to the peasants, but to the creation of cooperatives including all the operators of the sector.

"The plan of death"

Another participant, the economist Camille Chalmers, reviewed the neo-liberal politics. According to the Chalmers, the director of PAPDA, the application of these politics started in the 1980's with the American Plan for Haiti.

The economist made known that one of the obje ctives of the neo-liberal plan, which he qualified as the " Plan of death," was to devalue the national currency. The IMF wanted a below-par rating of the national currency to 50 to 60 gourds per dollar, affirmed Chalmers.

"With this below-par rating of the Haitian gourde, foreign investors would have the possibility of finding labor at a better price in Haiti," he stressed.

According to Chalmers, the Haitian peasant and the small businessmen don't have access to credit, the rural environment is not a priority for the Haitian state authorities and the minute part of the national budget allocated to this sector is tapped by large businesses.

Foreign trade has also contributed to the degradation of the national economy, because, added the economist, it's rate of importation is much greater than it's rate of exportation.

"The massive introduction of imported rice in the local market, the neo-liberal politics of the IMF, of the State Department and of the World Bank threaten the lives of the rice producers of the Artibonite and of the Haitian people in general", said the director of the PAPDA (Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development).

The assembly of August 22nd was, furthermore, the occasion for participants and organizers to renew their criticism of the CCI(the Interim Cooperation Framework developed by the international community after the ouster of President Aristide). According to the assembly, the peasant sector is not taken into account in the plan concocted by the international community for the reconstruction of Haiti.

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