A study by the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture published in 1981 showed that nearly 20% of mountain soils were on the verge of no longer being usable for agriculture, and 30% were seriously threatened and at risk of being lost if nothing was done to protect them. This problem is one of the causes of food insecurity in Haiti. This is particularly true in Platon Cèdre, a small town located in the heights of Anse-à-Pitres, a commune in the South-East department.
This plateau, once a water tower, a verdant and flourishing agricultural area, has today become a deserted area... A vast terrain covered in pebbles and alluvium. Agriculture is almost non-existent in Platon-Cèdre.
Powerless in the face of the scale of the environmental situation in the area, residents are calling for help. "Our only hope in the face of this catastrophe that haunts us daily would have been to preserve the beds of this river with retaining walls or living ramps," said Mercidieu Petit 'Homme, a farmer in the area who is already in his sixties, with a desolate air. He points his index finger towards the river covered in mud, alluvium and rubble, in order to draw the attention of visitors to the extent of the disasters.
"It's unbearable! We can no longer live in these subhuman conditions. The last floods that Platon Cèdre experienced, in October 2016, were horrible. Look, sir, we have nothing left here. Our trees, our fields, our livestock, our little houses, our beautiful greenery, everything has collapsed, everything has disappeared, leaving a completely hideous space. It looks like an area that has emerged from the massacre," said Jean Baptiste Flavie, a young farmer desperately trying to cross the bed of this river that has since been called "Twou Malè," a place that does not bring us happiness.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has heard the cry of this vulnerable and destitute population. "From the Mountains to the Sea" is the UNDP's new approach, launched in 2015. The initiative involves activities to reclaim degraded land in the area. The project also enables the creation of income-generating activities for the population, explains agronomist Jean Pierre Aladin. He is the UNDP coordinator of this project in the Southeast department.
For this fortnight, more than sixty workers... Men and women are recruited. Their job consists of transporting and placing stones in a crust caused by runoff water. Anièse, a farmer, is not part of this new cohort of workers selected for the week. But she doesn't complain.
Just like her, hundreds of families in Platon Cèdre lost everything: their small house, farmland, and livestock during the last floods that hit the town of Anse à Pitres in October 2016. But more than that, they were stripped of the thing they held most dear: their Arab land. Several hundred hectares of arable land were swept away by the raging waters, says Liomène, another farmer who is already in her fifties.
Thanks to this soil conservation project in Platon Cèdre, the inhabitants of this locality hope for a gradual revival of their agricultural activities. It is in fact an initiative of the members of the community and funded by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, "33% of soils worldwide are degraded." In Haiti, the situation is disastrous: nearly 63% of farms have a slope greater than 20% and only 29% have a slope of less than 10%.
Written by: Louiny FONTAL
