peddles the produce roadside and cooks rice-and-bean plates from a
stick-frame lunch shack to help support their family of eight.
Suddenly, though, eight hungry mouths soared to 18 after siblings and in-laws from earthquake-ravaged
The couple’s spare, concrete house — no bigger than an average one-bedroom apartment in
— is packed to bursting. Food once converted to cash goes to feed the
homeless loved ones. Money is now so short that the pair doubt they
will be able to buy seeds for the crucial spring planting season that
is only weeks away.
“I don’t see how we will have enough money,” said
Cius, 40, sweating under a porkpie hat as she ladled rice from a
charcoal-heated pot. “There’s no way. There’s no money.”
The effects of the
Villagers are near the breaking point as they try to
accommodate tens of thousands of displaced city dwellers just when they
would be putting their precious resources into preparing for planting.
In desperation, some have resorted to eating their meager seed stocks
or killing their chickens and goats to feed the influx, rather than
keeping them to sell.
Fertilizer is expensive and seeds for cereal crops
are in short supply because of damage to the seaport in the capital and
wary buying by wholesalers. Farming areas southwest of
were also devastated by the 7.0-magnitude quake, which ruined whole
towns, such as Leogane, near the epicenter, and damaged vital
irrigation channels.
Agricultural officials and aid workers worry that while global efforts to help quake victims in
are hitting their stride, the ripple effect in the countryside
threatens to stymie home farming and worsen conditions in areas where
most people already scrape by on less than
Relief workers say only a tiny portion of
international aid has been earmarked for rural Haitians, who account
for most of the country’s 9 million people. Of
“These communities were already the poorest part of
the country. The countryside is extremely poor and they have very few
means to cope,” said
Jones said spot surveys show that the average size of rural families has nearly doubled, from five members to nine.
Agencies are scrambling to import 2 tons of seeds,
plus hoes, shovels and wheelbarrows, for the farmers, many of whom lost
their hand tools under collapsed homes near
“The planting season is approaching. We’ve got to
deliver these seeds before it starts,” said Roberto Borlini, who works
for an Italian nonprofit called GVC that plans to distribute seeds and
tools to 2,000 families near Petit-Goave, a hard-hit town southwest of
the capital.
GVC and at least a couple of dozen other foreign aid
agencies, including such major players as CARE, have focused part of
their efforts on rural areas. But farmland assistance has been
overshadowed by the critical needs in
Years of deforestation have denuded much of the
countryside, helping to degrade overworked soil that doesn’t hold
nutrients well and yields food reluctantly.
In a country that grows rice and corn, Haitians get
most of their cereals and many other goods from abroad, making them
extraordinarily expensive. A chicken can cost
Tropical storms two years ago caused
In many ways, relief workers say, it’s fortunate
that so many of the displaced found shelter with relatives. The
arrangement provides a smoother way to deliver aid and offers the
homeless a healthier alternative to sleeping in the encampments that
have popped up in
But the exodus of an estimated 480,000 people from
the capital has flooded dirt-road villages with city folk who need to
eat and have little interest in hoe-and-spade work. Anyway, there were
already too few farm jobs to go around.
“I don’t go out. I don’t hear music. I don’t see the
things I’m used to seeing,” said bored-looking city dweller
Richemononde Cius, 27, the sister of Roselaine. She and other family
members piled into a bus headed for the country two days after the
earthquake, which split the family house in
As a child, Richemononde Cius spent summers with her
farming relatives, but she never wanted to live in the country. She now
bides her time waiting for ideas from her fiance in
The 10 newcomers pitch in as they can, then stay
outside in the dirt yard as late as possible before bunking down on
concrete floors covered wall to wall with people.
call themselves “deportees” — means she has less food to turn into
plates of rice, beans and bits of chicken to sell for
“Every morning I have to think about where to get
food for all these people,” said her 53-year-old husband. “I can’t let
them go hungry.”
With funds dwindling, he and his wife have yet to buy seed for the spring crop of beans, maize and rice.
Half a mile up the road, Luckner Monrinvil and his family have taken in 10 relatives from
The difficulty of finding something to eat has
brought constant anxiety. A few spoonfuls of rice or a bit of boiled
breadfruit, fortified with pieces of processed fish, may be all anyone
gets.
The recent harvest of peppers and sweet potatoes was
a flop, a fact Monrinvil attributes to the earth’s trembling. He has no
cash for seeds.
Monrinvil, 53 years old but taut as a teenager,
offers to show a visitor his half-acre field, a hike of a mile or so.
Under a scorching afternoon sun, he sets out past verdant stands of
corn and a wide irrigation channel that also serves as a swimming pool
and bathtub for residents.
But about halfway, Monrinvil reconsiders and asks to
turn back. He is feeling the first pangs of hunger, and they remind him
that he lacks a plan for food this day.
There are so many mouths to feed.
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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