Haiti - Agriculture : The President Martelly on a crusade for the food self-sufficiency
The President Michel Martelly, went, Friday, July 20, to Baie-de-Henne, municipality in the borough of Môle-St-Nicolas, and to Raymond, first communal section of Jean-Rabel, in the department of Northwest, on the occasion of the inauguration of lakes, as part of National Program of Hill Lakes.
The Head of State was accompanied, among others, of the Minister of Agriculture, Jacques Thomas, of Senator Hyppolite Mélius, of Brother Franklin Armand of the Community of the Incarnation which, to his credit, the establishment of over 160 hill lakes. After he got off the helicopter, the President was welcomed by the deputies Pierre Matin Tatou (Chansolme), Johnson Dieujuste (Jean-Rabel), the Secretary of State for Agricultural Renewal, Mr. Vernet Joseph, the Chargé de mission of the Presidency for the Northwest, Mr. Destima Raymond Fedner, and the Departmental Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, the agronomist Karl Charlemagne.
The role of these artificial lakes [fish breeding centers] is important for the ecosystem of the area: birds, attracted to water protect crops by destroying insects. Outside the rainy season, water from these lakes may be used for watering and the farmed fish, allowin the families to improve their diet. The Head of State, who has symbolically seeded a hill reservoir in Baie-de-Henne by releasing fry, stressed the importance of these achievements for the food self-sufficiency and the revival of agriculture for the inhabitants of these communities repeatedly proven by periods of drought.
