IFAP appeals for aid for Haitian farmers

The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) is appealing for “international solidarity with the farmers and people of Haiti” in the aftermath of last month’s devastating earthquake. The IFAP says farmers in Haiti are the backbone of that society. It’s estimated, as of late January, that over 20-thousand of the 35-thousand smaller farmers in rural Haiti have been either wounded or affected by the earthquake in some way. The head of the Union of Haitian Peasants (UHP), the national farmer’s organization, says the Haitian government is not capable of handling the “magnitude” of the disaster and that rural communities are not likely a priority for aid. He says the situation for these farmers is “truly critical and beyond words.”

Northern Haiti has been very productive in fruit and vegetable crops in partnership with a French aid organization which is appealing through the French arm of the IFAP for help to keep the project going in order to meet the food supply demand.

The IFAP says the mass exodus of those in Port-au-Prince to the rural areas of Haiti has increased the need for help.

The IFAP says to offer moral or financial support, please contact Mr. Jean-Claude Dorsainvil, Secretary General of UHP at uhpeasants@yahoo.ca