Monday of on the occasion of World Food Day, which takes place this Wednesday, October 16 around the theme "Sustainable food systemsat the service of food security and nutrition", Thomas Jacques, Minister of Agriculture announced that the Haitian authorities had chosen to celebrate this day around the sub-theme "An n kontinye plante plis bannann pou nou kapab konbat grangou."

The Minister recalled that the banana industry was one of the main production chain in the country, particularly profitable, which could help create more jobs and help fight hunger. He encourages banana farmers to increase their production and Haitians to consume them and parents to give bananas to their children.

Papita, boiled banana, banana flour, banana flavor, baneco and other Haitian handicrafts made ​​from the stems, banana leaves will be exhibited October 16, 2013 on the occasion of the exhibition of the banana in Arcahaie. Different varieties of banana will be presented to the public in their various forms, their usefulness in the Haitian culinary system, nutritional value...

Beyond encouragement, the Minister did not mention the measures to be taken at the level of national production [insufficient irrigation, fight against diseases caused by insects...] or control of imports of bananas from our Dominican neighbors.

He noted that in a study of the banana sector in Haiti, published in July 2012 by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the banana production has dropped to less than 450,000 metric tons at the end of 2000s, when it was 600,000 tons at the end of the previous decade.

A sharper fall for plantain of at least 30%, whose crop area is estimated at nearly 20,000 hectares with a concentration in the alluvial plains of Arcahaie and Leogane (about 5,000 ha) and Northwest (Trois Rivières, Jean Rabel with 2,000 ha).

This study also indicates that the average yields per hectare in Haiti, vary according to production areas and varieties grown from 7 to 18 tonnes. However, in intensive production, in the plain of Arcahaie where there is some agricultural know-how, the performance obtained is far superior to other production areas of the country.

Note for comparison, that the average yield per hectare in the French Antilles is 31 tonnes, 20 tonnes in Senegal, which gets in greenhouses, yields of up to 60 metric tons, finally the Dominican Republic on the international market, more than 300,000 metric tons of bananas, which are added to production for local consumption.

PI/ HaitiLibre