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Mark Hare - Page 2 |
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(Left) The roads in Haiti are hard
on vehicles. Toyota’s Landcruiser is one of the toughest pickups
available for development work in countries such as Haiti and Nicaragua.
At only five years of age, this Landcruiser already spends nearly
as much time in maintenance as it does working. |
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(Right) Bad roads result in numerous complications.
One is the cost of fuel. Fuel that costs approximately $2.36 a gallon
in Port au Prince sells for $2.74 in Hinche where it is literally
sold “by the gallon.” Tankers are practically unheard
of in the Central Plateau region, so fuel is shipped in 55-gallon
drums, often tied precariously onto the backs of dump-truck-sized
vehicles. Bad roads also lead to complications in servicing electric
and telephone lines, making these public services erratic and of
poor quality at the best of times. |
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Erosion in Haiti is a complicated issue. Charcoal production, essential
to the rural economy, results in loss of trees, which aggravates
erosion. Erosion leads to low agricultural productivity, which means
more and more land must be farmed each year in order to harvest
the necessary crops. With land at a high premium for production,
there are few opportunities for letting the land rest for the seven
to ten years it would normally need to regain some of its fertility.
As the soils become more and more limited and crop production more
erratic, the dependency on charcoal becomes greater. More trees
are cut and the cycle continues. |
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A typical scene of the very good diversified agriculture that is
also common in the Haitian countryside. Many of the large trees
in the foreground are mango trees—each one may produce a
different variety of mango. Surrounding the mangos are fields of
bananas, corn, and sorghum, as well as a fairly extensive orchard
of grafted orange trees (including naval oranges). The Samana River
winds through this Haitian Garden of Eden. Despite the cycles of
degradation that affect daily life in rural Haiti, I see many many
agricultural practices that are positive and productive—many
more positive practices than negative, in fact. |
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