Haiti-AGRICULTURE

Figure 14. Estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Sector, Fiscal Year (FY) 1987

Source: Based on information from United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe, 1987: Haiti, Santiago, Chile, 1988; and Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, No. 2, London, 1989, 4.

Agriculture continued to be the mainstay of the economy in the late 1980s; it employed approximately 66 percent of the labor force and accounted for about 35 percent of GDP and for 24 percent of exports in 1987 (see fig. 14). The role of agriculture in the economy has declined severely since the 1950s, when the sector employed 80 percent of the labor force, represented 50 percent of GDP, and contributed 90 percent of exports. Many factors have contributed to this decline. Some of the major ones included the continuing fragmentation of landholdings, low levels of agricultural technology, migration out of rural areas, insecure land tenure, a lack of capital investment, high commodity taxes, the low productivity of undernourished farmers, animal and plant diseases, and inadequate infrastructure. Neither the government nor the private sector invested much in rural ventures; in FY 1989 only 5 percent of the national budget went to the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Development (Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Resources Naturelles et du Développement Rural--MARNDR). As Haiti entered the 1990s, however, the main challenge to agriculture was not economic, but ecological. Extreme deforestation, soil erosion, droughts, flooding, and the ravages of other natural disasters had all led to a critical environmental situation.

Data as of December 1989