Food Security Issue In Haiti, And Proposal To Its Solution

Abstract

Haiti is a country located in the Caribbean and it is among the lowest countries on the 2019 HDI rankings. Haiti is a third world country on the three-world model and this is because of issues like its life expectancy being 63. 81 because of problems like AIDS, another main contributor is the constant natural disasters that Haiti face every year, these natural disasters make it hard to focus on less pressing matters like education which is most likely why the literacy rate is only 61%. Another issue which is caused by the frequent natural disasters and is the primary focus of my proposal is the food security issue that Haiti faces. There are organizations that do already help on other issues like USAID so I will focus on educating Haiti’s farmers so that they can increase their crop yield and take more care in protecting their food supply. This problem is a world issue because there certainly are different ways to combat the food issues in Haiti. Another slightly controversial view is that global warming has impacted the rate and severity of the natural disasters Haiti faces because while Haiti has had natural disasters for some time they have seemed to only increase in severity and the frequency over the years.

Report Food security which always means having access to a safe and adequate amount of food at all times in order to live a healthy life is something that a lot of developing countries lack. This issue is very prominent in Haiti and is one of the many problems they face mostly because of the large amount of natural disasters they face. An issue which is very important is food security and this is Haiti’s largest concern because approximately 3 million people do not have reliable access to food. This is caused by government instability and by the constant and varying natural disasters that Haiti constantly faces, such examples include hurricanes, floods, droughts etc. An example of the impact of the natural disasters was that in 2010 Haiti faced an earthquake of magnitude 7. 0. The major impacts from it was first, death toll which was 220,000 – 300,000, second, that 1. 5 million were displaced and that 3978 schools were destroyed. These constant natural disasters will impact many things in Haiti such as economy, housing/shelter, and education. Agriculture I believe is very important because 50% of the jobs in Haiti revolve around agriculture. So it is very important as it heavily effects other aspects like economy and as seen from the graph below food security is the number one issue from natural disasters. After doing a large amount of research I discovered an organization called USAID that is an American government, foreign aid organization that focuses on helping Haiti through focusing on the economy and promoting education, healthcare, shelters etc. My focus is to help Haiti become more self-sustaining which would done by putting a major emphasis on educating farmers to help increase crop yield and to also help keep food more secure. Some of the most important crops in Haiti include rice, plantains, sweet potatoes and corn so that would most likely be the main focus for farmers to grow. Another concern was building storm resistant green houses in order to better protect agriculture and there is a fairly new one developed by Alquimi Renewables which can stand up to category 4 hurricanes. This model however does not have an official retail price yet.

Proposal Haiti is a country plagued with issues it is among the lowest on the HDI rankings and is a third world country on the three world model. Its main issues are caused by the governments instability and by the constant natural disasters, these factors make life very difficult because of the constant disasters which damage Haiti’s economy, food supply, housing etc. One of the biggest issues out of all the ones listed however is the countries food instability which is shown by studies where apparently 3 million Haitian citizens do not have reliable access to food and also that 50% of the countries job are related to agriculture, so for a country that is in constant fear of natural disasters protecting crops is a big deal. Large organizations like USAID already give aid in many aspects such as building shelters, education, health, so for sustainable development our primary focus would be on agriculture, more importantly on educating farmers so that they can take more precautions in protecting crops and so they can potentially increase their crop result. When educating farmers, the focus would be on the location of crops, meaning are they growing crops in a suitable environment. Next is protecting the crops which can be done by educating farmers in how they handle the farming and to make sure to the keep crops safe and clean. Some methods of how this can be achieved is by recruiting people from Canada to fly over to Haiti on a 2-3-month term to educate farmers in all these aspects and fields.

The other way we plan on helping is by building sturdy greenhouses in order to protect crops from natural disasters in order to reduce the amount of ruined food supply that Haiti has faced in the pass due to hurricanes, floods etc. Based on these findings I believe Haiti is very suitable for the grant for a number of reasons. First is because of Haiti’s low rankings on the HDI it is one of the poorest countries in the world which is almost impossible to get out of because the constant natural disasters make developing impossible. This is seen by using one of Haiti’s many natural disasters as an example, in 2010 Haiti faced an earthquake of magnitude 7. 0 and was devasted by it. The death toll was around 220,000 – 300,000, 1. 5 million were displaced and 3978 schools were destroyed. This damage is massive and since Haiti isn't a developed country, they can’t really prepare shelters like the U. S for example. This is why foreign aid is imperative so with the $500,000 grant we will do the following. We will bring people with a background in agriculture to help educate the Haitian farmers, they will stay for around 2-3 months a plane ticket there cost around $400 one way. They will focus on educating them in taking care of Haiti’s most resourceful crops which are rice, sweet potatoes, corn and plantain. We will also like to also build greenhouses in order to increase the safety of the crops. These greenhouses will be manufactured by Alquimi Renewables and even though they don’t have an official price listed we assume it will be around $6000 which is mostly standard for the intended scale of the greenhouses. So, with the $500,000 we will pay for agriculture experts to educate farmers and build various greenhouses. With this use of the money we can help nullify a huge problem Haiti faces and hopefully help jump start the country towards development because no country should have to worry about half the population not having reliable food. Therefore, this sustainable development will help Haiti thrive in various ways since the natural disasters are inevitable at least we can reduce the damage and help prepare the residents of Haiti, so food security isn't such a huge issue like it's been in the past.