Haiti's agriculture minister takes his case for crisis-proof farming to an IDB forum in Panama

More than half of Haiti's population does not have enough to eat, and the country's agriculture minister went to Panama to argue that the answer has to come from Haitian fields, not only from aid shipments. Marcelin Aubourg, who heads the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR), made the case on Thursday, Oct. 22, at a regional policy dialogue on agriculture and rural development hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The meeting, held in Panama City under the theme of building productive and resilient agri-food systems, was a regional forum for agriculture ministers; Peru, for one, sent its own minister. According to the official Peruvian decree authorizing that trip, the IDB is using the talks to prepare a new food-security framework for 2027. Le Nouvelliste, Vant Bèf Info and HaitiLibre all reported on Aubourg's remarks.

His central message was that emergency food aid, while still needed, cannot be the whole policy. Haiti, he argued, must invest for the long term in its own production and gradually import less food. The ministry's list of priorities starts with the basics: good seeds, suitable tools, technical advice for farmers and access to modern farming technology.

Water came next. Aubourg called for repairing irrigation systems, managing water better and modernizing farms so that yields rise. He also pointed to the pressures that make Haitian farming fragile: climate change, worn-out soils, gang insecurity and broken supply chains.

To cope with those shocks, the minister proposed conserving soil and water, diversifying crops and creating credit tailored to producers hit by crises. He also asked for stronger early-warning systems, so that authorities can act before a hurricane or drought wipes out a harvest rather than after.

Part of every harvest is also lost before it is sold. Aubourg put reducing post-harvest losses high on the agenda, through better storage, preservation, processing and transport. Vant Bèf Info reports that he also wants school canteens supplied with local produce, which would give farmers a steady market and children a more varied diet.

He had a message for donors as well. Partners, he said, should line up behind priorities set by Haitian authorities, adapt their support to fragile states and help build lasting institutions, with better coordination and closer monitoring of projects.

The stakes are high. In April, the national food-security coordination body CNSA, working with FAO and the World Food Programme, estimated that 5.83 million people, or 52% of the population, faced acute food insecurity, with more than 1.8 million in an emergency situation. FAO said armed violence, which has displaced more than a million people, high fuel prices and the damage left by Hurricane Melissa in the southern peninsula all drove the crisis.

Prices tell the same story. Haiti's statistics institute IHSI measured food inflation at 19% over the year to July 2026, and the price of rice, a staple largely imported, rose by about 22%.

The Panama trip follows a visit to FAO headquarters in Rome earlier this month, where Aubourg met Rein Paulsen, the agency's director of emergencies and resilience, and asked for more emergency farm support, Le Nouvelliste reported. An agronomist trained in rural engineering and a former lawmaker, Aubourg took office on March 4, 2026.

What remains to be seen is whether these priorities turn into funded projects. The IDB already backs Haitian agriculture through grants, but the minister's speech did not come with new money or a timetable.