Mission Statement
To help rebuild and improve Haiti’s agriculture infrastructure by:
- Introducing more effective planting methods for harvesting
- Building crop irrigation systems for year-round planting
- Introduce and demonstrate the benefits of modern farm
machinery
- Put-in place the administrative process to help local farmers
bring crops to market and leverage there bargaining power
- Establish and repeat this process one farm town at a time in
the A’rtibonite Region
RELEVANT FACT
The fact that the COOP has
secured such a large parcel of
land in one area should not be
understated.
“One of the most endemic
problems facing Haiti is the
land problem. To realize the
importance and cruciality of
this sensitive question in
Haitian history, one need only
know that all 24 constitutions
since independence in 1804
have mentioned land reform,
and that practically every time a
chief of state tried to put it into
action, he was ejected or
assassinated. Even Jean-
Jacques Dessalines, founder
of the Republic and hero of the
independence struggle, did not
escape this tragic reality.
Today, according to official
statistics, at least 65 percent of
the population lives in the
countryside, but very few
actually own the land they work.
Instead, large landowners
(grandons) own or run large
tracts and rent land out in an
exploItative sharecropping
system. Those few peasants
who do own land generally
have a tiny patch - 70 percent of
all farms are under one
hectare - which can only be
cultivated in the most basic
manner. “
The Land Issue, Justice and Elections
Haiti Info, Vol.3 no.11, 11 March 1995
