Thomas Jacques, Minister of Agriculture, at the head of a delegation, participated in Brazil in the first ministerial meeting of countries of Latin America of Agriculture (November 10-11), under the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which was held around the theme of Family Farming.

In his speech, the Minister of Agriculture indicated that the Haitian government had developed a program to revive the agricultural sector, spread over three years (2013-2016), which incorporates an essential component to its revitalization : Family Farming, through the sub-program "Support for Family Farming" spearhead of this three-year program.

He revealed that the first results obtained by this sub-program have helped reduce extreme poverty by 8%, from 32% in 2011 to 24% in 2014. "This decline in extreme poverty is the result of combined efforts in the agricultural sector and especially the implementation of a social program that helps the poorest. However, more substantial efforts must be made in the agricultural sector to achieve the objectives namely, a Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger in 2025."

On the sidelines of the first ministerial meeting, the Minister Jacques took the opportunity to multiply meetings to strengthen ties of cooperation with Brazilian organizations, with in particular EMBRAPA, a technology innovation company focused on the generation of knowledge and technologies for Brazilian agriculture around its program of in vitro culture, that the Ministry intends to develop to solve in Haiti the availability of plants including banana and cassava.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre