With technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Regional Animal Health Organization (OIRSA), health officials from ministries of agriculture of Haiti and the Dominican Republic recently participated in a workshop to validate the proposal of the Agricultural Health Program to be implemented by both countries to reduce the risk of introduction and spread of pests and transboundary diseases affecting stability and availability of food.

The proposed agricultural health program will also contribute to strengthen the technical capacity of agricultural health services, with a view to improving prevention, management and control of pests and diseases and risk management.

"The document to be validated by the authorities of the ministries of agriculture of the two countries is the result of a series of consultations in several missions carried out between 2016 and 2017 by FAO and OIRSA specialists. The current state of health, agricultural services and zoo-phytosanitary protection of Haiti and the Dominican Republic have been assessed," said Carmelo Gallardo, FAO Representative in the Dominican Republic.

Dr Max Millien, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture, said that from a health protection perspective, the two countries should have a common vision of development "because the virus knows no barriers and the Dominican-Haitian border is very porous."

The Minister of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic, Ángel Estvez, welcomed the international authorities' interest in improving the sanitary and phytosanitary controls of the two countries of the island, in particular the effort to create a protocol that allows each Nation to "have a control of pests and endemic diseases and those that can be introduced."

This program promotes transparency, participation and open dialogue between the two countries, with timely and accurate information on animal and plant health issues, with an emphasis on transboundary pests and diseases and the risks of introduction and spread. It will also strengthen the capacity of farmers and local communities in the target border areas and agricultural health technicians in both countries.

Recall that this program, which will be accompanied by FAO, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and OIRSA, was designed with the active participation of the governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in particular their Ministry of Agriculture; the private sector, rural producers, NGOs, of regional cooperation agencies and organizations.

SL/ HaitiLibre