Vernet Joseph, Minister of Agriculture, in a joint statement with Pierre Vauthier, Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - Haiti), revealed that more than 70% of farmers in Haiti are women, pillars of agrifood production, who face significant constraints in accessing land, credit, and quality supply chains.

The International Day of Rural Women recently highlighted that the future of Haitian agriculture cannot be built without concrete actions aimed at fully integrating this immense female driving force, by strengthening women's participation in agricultural sectors and supporting the "Madan Sara" the true linchpins of national food distribution.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - Haiti) work daily to transform this potential into an engine of economic and social development.

In 2025, several FAO initiatives, in collaboration with the MARNDR, and direct support to nearly 70,000 people living from agriculture, helped preserve and revive their production, while generating a broader impact on the population, including in areas affected by insecurity, such as Artibonite, the Central Bas-Plateau, and the West.

As part of the National School Feeding Program (PNCS), strongly supported by the Ministry and the World Food Program (WFP), more than 82,500 small producers, grouped within 219 agricultural organizations, are committed to ensuring that 70% of the meals served each day to 600,000 schoolchildren supported by the WFP come directly from Haitian agriculture, strengthening both children's nutrition and boosting the local economy.

This contributes to the government's overall objective of reaching 1.4 million students by 2025 and ensuring 100% local purchases for school canteens by 2030. In the North and Northeast, an Integrated Nutrition and Local Purchasing Program, already funded to the tune of US$10 million, is being extended to other departments with an additional US$13 million in funding, enabling a greater number of producers to participate in this dynamic of promoting national production.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre