DOCSLIB.ORG

Creating Self-Sufficiency in Haiti Callie Schultes Pocahontas Area High School Population Growth. Water Scarcity. Tropical Storm

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Creating Self-Sufficiency in Haiti Callie Schultes Pocahontas Area High School Population Growth. Water Scarcity. Tropical Storm Creating Self-Sufficiency in Haiti Callie Schultes Pocahontas Area High School Population growth. Water scarcity. Tropical storms. Flooding. Resource depletion. Crime. Soil erosion. National debt. Poverty. Deforestation. Education. Health care. Child mortality rate. Malnutrition. The AIDS epidemic. Hunger. The list of Haiti‘s problems hindering food security is endless. Where do we begin? How do we give constructive aid to this suffering nation? Which issue do we address first, and how do we repair the damage? There are no miracle answers. All of these problems must be faced, but with what strategy and with what tools in our hands? I believe that education is the key. A person’s mind can be his greatest tool. The root cause of Haiti’s food insecurity is its environmental problems, brought about by the degradation of their natural resources. This problem can only be dealt with by education of the people, an asset which few Haitians currently have. The people have not been taught how to utilize what few resources they have and until they are, the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty will continue. Currently, Haiti is heavily dependent upon the United States, France, Canada, and other developed countries for its food, schools, and relief aid. In the scope of world issues, eradicating hunger is trump. World hunger holds the number one spot on the United Nations’ list of Millennium Development Goals for the 21st century. The UN, the World Bank, Bread for the World, and thousands of other non- governmental organizations are searching for solutions and working to establish food security. But with such mega numbers of hungry people, their resources are spread thin among several developing countries. A major piece of giving aid to these developing countries includes helping them become self-sustaining. The main factors preventing Haiti from becoming self-sufficient are lack of education, poverty, environmental obstacles, and political obstacles. In Haiti, all of these factors contribute to its food insecurity. Only about half of Haiti’s population is literate, and most of that half lives in urban areas. Haiti is one of the most densely populated countries in Latin America, but it has the lowest income per capita. Seventy-five percent of Haitians live below the poverty line, and about two-thirds of the population is unemployed. It is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and one of the poorest worldwide. Growing anything in Haiti is not easy. Much of the land is mountainous, and soil erosion poses fertility problems. Finally, Haitian government is not equipped with the necessary resources to help its people. All of these factors take time to eliminate on multiple fronts, but until they are, Haitians need something to eat. We must show them new agricultural methods that can be successful in the country’s terrain and climate. Additionally, we need to show them techniques that do not contribute to the deforestation and soil erosion already prevalent in the country, but rather techniques that may even reverse the damage already done. We must help them help themselves and create an environment in which food stability is possible. Rather than giving the people of Haiti fish, we must teach them how to fish. Life in Haiti is archaic. A little over half of the population lives in rural areas. In these areas, it is extremely rare to have electricity, sanitation, or any other modern convenience. Because there is no electricity, days begin and end with the sun. There is no local government, crime prevention, legal system, or organization of any kind. Each must fend for their own. A typical rural family in Haiti is composed of a father, mother, and 2-4 children. Because parents are not legally married, it is common for the father to be absent. Men are the dominant gender and make all decisions within the family. Women are expected to perform many tasks stereotypical to the female gender: keeping house and raising children, along with some field work, if the family is wealthy enough to own any land. Near the coast, Haitians eat fish that the men catch using hollowed out logs as fishing boats. Further inland, Haitian farmers work approximately half an acre, but it is estimated that the average family requires about 3 acres to live normally, an amount of land which very few Haitian farmers have. The largest Haitian exports are mangoes and coffee, but they also raise corn and sweet potatoes. Haiti imports 48 percent of its food consumed and close to 400,000 tons of rice each year. When times are good, rural people eat rice, beans, sorghum, and milo that the women typically cook in pits heated by burning charcoal. However, when the cost of imported food doubles in just two months as it did in 2008, Haitians either go hungry or resort to “mud cakes.” These “cakes,” made of clay, salt and shortening, are formed into gray disks about the size of a man’s hand. Not only are these cakes nutrient deficient and unappetizing, but they also cost money, something which Haitians have very little of. The idea of having gourdes, the basic Haitian currency, is almost inconceivable in some rural areas. The life of the average Haitian is simple: they wake to the hot sun shining through the sticks that form their hut, spend the majority of the day bored, lying around, and fall asleep as the sun is going down. This may sound like the perfect vacation for some privileged Americans, but life in Haiti is by no means comfortable. For many of them, the day also ends with pains of hunger, in spite of the fact that they have spent their day scrounging for food. Even children join the search: eight-year-old girls can butcher a goat in as little as five minutes. Children living near aid organization bases can go to school where they receive another meal. The World Food Programme provides more than 40,000 elementary-aged Haitian children with a meal each school day in some 850 primary schools. For some of these children, the meal provided through the school will be their only food for the day. Although Christianity is the official religion of Haiti, and most schools are operated by Christian aid groups, it is estimated that over half of Haitians practice some form of voodoo, which is likely also a part of the average Haitian’s day. Agriculture in Haiti is made very difficult because of the terrain and climate. Not only is there very little arable land, but farming in Haiti can be financially risky, and it can turn into a failure over night. In 2008 alone, 4 tropical storms wiped out more than 70 percent of Haiti‘s agricultural yields, all hitting within 30 days. Hurricanes pose a threat to the agricultural base of Haiti for about 6 months each year. Unlike problems with insects, weeds, and disease, there are no chemicals farmers can spray on crops to make them “hurricane-resistant,” so these storms pose a unique obstacle. For 2009’s hurricane season, experts have predicted 7 to 11 storms to rise from the Atlantic Ocean by the end of November, with 3-6 of them reaching hurricane status. Haiti is still recovering from last year’s hurricane season and is not equipped to face another devastating season. These natural disasters make it very difficult to ensure food security in Haiti. Infrastructure needs improvement, and food and water must be stockpiled for when disaster strikes. For this year’s hurricane season, aid groups have stockpiled enough food to feed up to 1 million people for a month and a half. The World Food Programme has deposited 63 go-anywhere trucks throughout the country as well as 112 metric tons of high energy biscuits to feed groups for the first five days after a hurricane in 13 critical areas. We cannot control these natural disasters. But we can control how we respond. Hurricanes are not the only factor contributing to Haiti’s food insecurity. The island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, is very mountainous, and only about 29 percent of Haiti’s land is suitable for agriculture: approximately 8,000 sq. kilometers. Because of boundless deforestation in Haiti, soil erosion and natural resource degradation have occurred and successful farming is made even more difficult. Now take into the equation Haiti’s growing population of roughly 9 million, 75 percent of which live on less than $2 a day, and likely cannot afford the seeds, irrigation, pesticides, and herbicides that would make farming a profitable business. Also, many Haitians have not been taught how to farm successfully and cannot even read the label on a bag of seed. With all of these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, it is easy to understand why Haitians simply take the food given to them by aid groups and do not attempt to provide for themselves. To establish food security in this impoverished nation, citizens must be able provide for themselves. Haiti has lost more than 98 percent of its natural forest. Deforestation has several adverse effects. Not only does it contribute to global warming, but it disrupts rain patterns, so that some areas do not receive sufficient rain for agriculture. Also, because there is very little vegetation, there is nothing to absorb rainfall. Rainwater tumbles down the mountainside without obstruction, eroding the soil, and enters cities, where flooding and catastrophe ensues, or straight into the ocean, where the soil is lost forever. Whichever occurs, aquifer water supplies are not replenished and drought results, making agriculture very challenging. As water table levels are going down, population and demand for clean water is going up.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Haiti: a New Paradigm
    Haiti: a new paradigm 1. Introduction Haiti has made considerable strides towards economic recovery and political stability since democratic elections were held in 2006. In 2008, the rise in food and oil prices hit the Haitian population disproportionately and led to social unrest and political crisis. Subsequently, the country was hard hit by a succession of hurricanes and storms that left a trail of devastation, destroying livelihoods and infrastructure with damages estimated at 15 percent of GDP. Now, the global recession poses further threats to the country’s stability through declining export earnings and remittances. To address these challenges, the Government of Haiti has embarked on a focused action plan to safeguard the gains already achieved and ensure that the country continues on a path towards economic security. The immediate priorities in order to maintain stability are to address the US$125m financing shortfall in the budget mainly for the reconstruction process from the devastation caused by the last four hurricanes and storms. If the global situation does not stabilize over the budget cycle and fiscal receipts decline, this gap could be greater. Investments in schools, hospitals and adequate water supply, along with measures that promote food security, form the necessary foundation of any forward looking strategy and are indispensable for social cohesion. Reconstruction is still underway and concrete measures need to be taken prior to the 2009 hurricane season to avoid a new humanitarian emergency and to decisively reduce the population’s vulnerability to natural disasters. However, while first-order priorities, reconstruction and bridge financing alone will not suffice.
    [Show full text]
  • Deforestation of Haiti Lesson Plan
    Deforestation in Haiti Author: Beverly Feldkamp, Valley Lutheran High Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations School, Michigan Geographic Alliance • 6-G1.2.6 Apply the skills of geography inquiry to analyze a problem or issue of Lesson Overview: Students examine causes, effects, importance to a region of the Western and solutions to deforestation in Haiti. Hemisphere • 6-G1.3.1 Use the fundamental themes of Objectives: The student will be able to: geography to describe regions or places • Describe the geography and environment of on earth Haiti. • 6-G5.1.1 Describe the environmental • Explain the causes of deforestation in Haiti. effects of human action on the • Explain the effects of deforestation on the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and environment and people of Haiti. hydrosphere • Propose and evaluate solutions to deforestation • 6-G5.1.3 Identify the ways in which in Haiti. human-induced changes in the physical environment in one place can cause Subject/Grade Level: Social Studies, Geography, 6-12 changes in other places • 6-G5.2.1 Describe the effects that a Student Materials: change in the physical environment • Student Reading about Haiti; could have on human activities and the • Cause/effect statement cards; choices people would have to make in • Blank cause/effect graphic organizer; adjusting to the change • Student Assessment Packet: • 6-G6.1.1 Conduct research on contemporary global topics and issues, o Assignment compose persuasive essays, and develop o magazine articles “Manure, Paper Waste and Corn Stalks Help Halt Deforestation a plan for action in Haiti” and “Massive Savings bring • WHG CG2 Resources Explain the opportunities for destitute families:” ; changes over the past 50 years in the use, • Laminated map of Middle America/World distribution, and importance of natural (textbook map will also work), resources on human life, settlement, and interactions Teacher Materials: National Geography Standards: • Teacher Notes • STANDARD 4: The physical and • Answer keys human characteristics of places.
    [Show full text]
  • Small Farms, Large Transaction Costs: Haiti's Missing Sugar
    Small Farms, Large Transaction Costs: Haiti’s Missing Sugar Craig Palsson Huntsman School of Business Utah State University∗ Abstract Haiti was the world’s leading sugar producer, but when cane surged in the Caribbean in the early 20th century, Haiti produced none. Instead, land sat idle while workers emigrated to work on sugar plantations. I examine the hypothesis that historical property rights institutions created high transaction costs for converting land to cane production. New land-use data from 1928-1950 and a proxy for transaction costs support the hypothesis. Furthermore, I show a labor supply shock pushed idle land into agriculture, but largely into subsistence farming. The evidence suggests transaction costs impeded the land market from responding to the sugar boom. ∗I thank Timothy Guinnane, Christopher Udry, and Naomi Lamoreaux for their guidance. I also appreciate helpful comments from Jose-Antonio Espin-Sanchez, Amanda Gregg, Claire Brennecke, Shameel Ahmad, Jakob Schneebacher, Jialu Chen, Fabian Schrey, Eric Hilt, Alan Dye, Noel Maurer, and participants at Yale seminars, the Economic History Association, NBER DAE, NEUDC, Universidad de los Andes, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and the Naval Postgraduate School. This paper was written while I was on a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Contact the author at [email protected]. 1 Explaining the disparity between rich and poor countries has always sat at the center of economic inquiry, but no country demands an explanation more than Haiti. In the 18th century, Haiti’s colonial economy was the most productive in the world, and even in the 19th century its post- Independence small-farm economy outperformed the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean neighbors (Bulmer-Thomas 2012, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Accidental Socialism: a Natural Experiment in Haiti 1796–1820
    Journal of Institutional Economics (2021), 17, 393–409 doi:10.1017/S1744137420000491 RESEARCH ARTICLE Accidental socialism: a natural experiment in Haiti 1796–1820 Mario Ferrero Department of Humanities, University of Eastern Piedmont, Via G. Ferraris, 116, Vercelli, 13100, Italy Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] (Received 2 July 2020; revised 2 October 2020; accepted 5 October 2020; first published online 4 November 2020) Abstract For some 25 years in revolutionary Haiti, most of the productive land was nationalized and run as state property. This paper shows that this economic system can be accurately described as agrarian socialism. Its life and death are compared with the experiences of 20th-century socialist regimes and their transition to a market economy, paying special attention to the kindred case of São Tomé. Haitian socialism is interesting because it was the unintended, accidental product of an emergency situation: the killing or flight of all the French landlords, which made their land vacant property and drove the state to run it in the public interest to defend the revolution. Therefore, it can be read as a natural experiment in socialism in the absence of a socialist ideology and of a socialist party that could hold the system together, constrain its income distri- bution, and control its eventual privatization. Key words: Free-land hypothesis; Haitian revolution; privatization; property rights; socialism; state farms JEL codes: P26; P32; P51 1. Introduction For about a quarter of a century, during and after its struggle for independence, most of the productive land in Haiti was nationalized and run as state property.
    [Show full text]
  • At God's Table
    At God’s Table Food Justice for a Healthy World April 5-8, 2013 Welcome to EAD 2013! — the 11th annual national gathering of men and women of faith who want to be a force for change for the betterment of all. This high impact weekend, sponsored by the ecumenical Christian community, is grounded in biblical witness and shared traditions of justice, peace and integrity of creation. Our goal is to strengthen the Christian voice and mobilize for advocacy on specific U.S. domestic and international policy issues. This weekend, we will explore At God’s Table: Food Justice for a Healthy World. You will join nearly a thousand Christians advocating for a world in which every person, in present and future generations, has a place “At God’s Table.” EAD 2013 follows in the wake of national elections, a new Congress, a lingering Farm Bill debate, and devastating droughts and floods, all with lasting consequences for our society and world. Monday’s Lobby Day will be a critical time to raise our faith voices in support of ending hunger, improving nutrition, creating more just and sustainable food systems and protecting God’s creation – while advocating for a “Faithful Federal Budget.” In a world that produces enough food for everyone, EAD 2013 will explore the injustices in global food systems that leave one billion people hungry, create food price shocks that destabilize communities everywhere, and undermine God’s creation. At God’s Table, all are invited and fed, and the poorest in our midst are given a special place. Together we will seek the abundance and equality that we find reflected in the biblical image of God’s great banquet table (Exodus 16:16-18 & Luke 14:12-24).
    [Show full text]
  • Animal Agriculture Haiti Is the Poore
    Kiana Gasch Brillion High School Brillion, WI Haiti, Factor 7: Animal Agriculture Haiti: Animal Agriculture Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I learned this first hand while traveling to Haiti in January 2015, where I visited Mireabalais, a very poor area about 40 miles north of Port au Prince. Per capita income is only two dollars a day, and in rural Haiti incomes are more commonly around a dollar per day (Planting). Rural Haitians often live without electricity, running water or working bathrooms and cooking is done outside over charcoal. This is not the charcoal that Americans buy in the store, but rather charred wood. For centuries Haitians have cut down trees and burned them in underground pits, to create charcoal. The constant tree harvesting has left the mountainsides lacking in vegetation and bare hillsides have suffered severe erosion, resulting in the rich topsoil washing away, leaving most land unsuitable for crop growth (Planting). The lack of trees has also affected the water cycle so that Haiti has a long dry season and a rainy season. Decades of severe erosion has coated the ocean coral around Port au Prince with silt, destroying the habitat for any marine life. So even though Haiti sits in the Caribbean it has no fishing industry and very little seafood in the people's diet. (Planting) Only 50 per cent of school age children attend school. Most schools are private, run by churches and do not have trained teachers. The cost to enroll in these private schools is often $130 per year.
    [Show full text]
  • Planting Now (2Nd Edition): Revitalizing Agriculture For
    162 OXFAM BRIEFING PAPER 15 OCTOBER 2012 Kenise Lainé, is a member of Development of Haitian Women (OREFHA), an Oxfam partner and one of the first organizations to experiment with the agroecological system of rice intensification (SRI) in the Artibonite Valley. © 2011 Brett Eloff/Oxfam America PLANTING NOW (2ND EDITION) Revitalizing agriculture for reconstruction and development in Haiti Agriculture in Haiti has suffered three decades of crisis and institutional neglect. Nevertheless, almost 60 percent of Haitians live in rural areas and rely on farming for their livelihoods. For that reason, agriculture must play a central role in post-earthquake reconstruction. However, the plans and programs of the Haitian government and the international community have proven insufficient to revitalize the sector and improve conditions for small-scale farmers, and have failed to recognize the important roles of women in agriculture. The Haitian government and the main actors in agriculture should continue to prioritize agricultural development, while putting greater emphasis on long-term programs to assist Haitians to get back on their feet and improve their living conditions with dignity. www.oxfam.org SUMMARY The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010 exacerbated the country‘s grinding poverty and serious development problems, while at the same time worsening Haitian living conditions. The tremor killed over 250,000 people and injured 300,000. It crippled the economy, causing losses estimated at almost 120 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Nevertheless, economic growth is expected to rise between 7 and 9 percent in 2012,1 largely owing to reconstruction efforts. The population in internally displaced persons camps has decreased from 1.5 million to around 390,000 (according to the June 2012 report of the International Organization for Migration),2 and the country‘s hurricane preparedness capacity has increased.
    [Show full text]
  • Haiti Rural Degradation
    Kaitlin Westphal, Student Participant Grinnell High School, Iowa Haiti Rural Degradation The Republic of Haiti has one of the highest population density per square kilometer in the Western Hemisphere with over half of its population undernourished. Haiti is located in the Caribbean and is the western one-third of the island Hispaniola, west of the Dominican Republic. The island Hispaniola is located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometers which is comparative to being slightly smaller than Maryland. The Haiti portion of the island is very rough and mountainous with only 28.3% arable land and only 11.61% permanent crops. The climate of this island is tropical and semiarid with the eastern mountains cutting off the trade winds. The island of La Isla Espanola, now known as Hispaniola, was claimed by Christopher Columbus for Spain in 1492. It became known as Santa Domingo under Spanish rule and became the first outpost of the Spanish empire. Its expected use was for plentiful gold supply but that proved to be unfounded but the island was still used for a starting point for conquests of other lands. The original, native people of the island slowing died off due to the diseases brought to their island. The island was soon forgotten due to its lack of natural minerals, this became especially noticeable after the conquest of Mexico, or New Spain as it was called then. In 1664, France was able to convert the western third of the island (now known as Haiti) in to an unofficial colony of Saint Dominique.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender, Ifis and Food Insecurity Case Study: Haiti
    Elizabeth Arend & Lisa Vitale November 2011 Gender, IFIs and Food Insecurity Case Study: Haiti Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, suffers from chronic food insecurity (World Food Program, 2010). One third of the population is food insecure, the most vul- nerable of whom are women and children. International Fi- nancial Institutions (IFIs), including the International Mone- tary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB), have severely under- www.un‐foodsecurity.org mined Haiti’s ability to improve food security and reduce hunger and malnutrition among Haiti’s poor. Beginning in the 1980s, IFI structural adjustment strategies imposed sweeping trade liberalization measures on Haiti (McGowen, 1997), including substantial reductions in Haiti’s import tariffs. United States and other developed country food imports “flooded into the country” (FAO, 2001), undermin- ing the livelihoods of rural farmers. Moreover, the WB and IDB, among Haiti’s largest donors and most influential policy advisors (Gender Action, 2010), have failed to adequately address gender issues in agricultural and rural de- velopment sector investments. Doing so would contribute to improving Haiti’s food security and reducing rural pov- erty. Destructive IFI agricultural policies have taken the greatest toll on Haitian women, who alone head almost half of the nation’s households and constitute the majority of Haiti’s subsistence farmers. Since Haiti’s devastating earth- quake in January 2010, the burden on poor women has only increased. Gender Action’s monitoring shows that most of the 13 WB and 80 IDB post-earthquake commitments to Haiti, totaling over US$950 million as of fall 2011, “neither focus on agriculture and rural development, nor on the role of women.” Contrary to WB and IDB gender policy recommendations, “few WB and IDB post-earthquake grants to Haiti are explicitly gender sensitive” (Gender Action, 2010).
    [Show full text]
  • (AREA) Project
    Appui à la Recherche et au Développement Agricole (AREA) Project Cooperative Agreement: AID-OAA-A-15-00039 Third Quarter Report | Fiscal Year 2020 April 1 – June 30, 2020 Prepared by the University of Florida for the U.S. Agency for International Development. July 2020 Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Tables .................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................................. 2 Disclaimer ............................................................................................................................................................ 3 Project Background ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 4 A. Climate Smart Solutions ............................................................................................................................... 4 B. Collaborative Capacity Building in Maize Seed Systems ........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Agricultural Liberalisation in Haiti
    Agricultural liberalisation in Haiti March 2006 Claire McGuigan TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................5 ECONOMIC OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................6 POVERTY .......................................................................................................................................6 EMPLOYMENT AND PURCHASING POWER........................................................................................6 GROWTH........................................................................................................................................7 TRADE, DEBT AND AID....................................................................................................................7 ECONOMIC POLICY.........................................................................................................................9 HAITIAN AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL LIBERALISATION ...................................10 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................10 CONSTRAINTS FOR HAITIAN AGRICULTURE...................................................................................10 AGRICULTURAL IMPORT LIBERALISATION ......................................................................................11
    [Show full text]
  • Agrarian Change and Peasant Prospects in Haiti Marylynn Elizabeth Steckley the University of Western Ontario
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository May 2015 Agrarian Change and Peasant Prospects in Haiti Marylynn Elizabeth Steckley The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Tony Weis The University of Western Ontario Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Human Geography Commons, and the Latin American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Steckley, Marylynn Elizabeth, "Agrarian Change and Peasant Prospects in Haiti" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. Paper 2831. This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Agrarian Change and Peasant Prospects in Haiti (Thesis format: Integrated Article) by Marylynn Steckley Graduate Program in Geography and the Collaborative Graduate Program in Migration and Ethnic Relations A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Degree Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Marylynn Steckley 2015 Abstract Haiti is one of the poorest and most severely hunger-stricken countries in the world (GHI 2013). Its contradictions are jarring: although Haiti has the largest relative agrarian population in the Western Hemisphere and relatively less land inequality than the rest of the region (Smucker et al. 2000; Wiens and Sobrado 1998), it is extremely food insecure. Almost 90 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line (FAO 2014; IFAD 2014), and Haiti relies on food imports for 60 percent of national consumption (OXFAM 2010).
    [Show full text]