Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
and wood lots. Experts classify at most 11 percent of the land,
and perhaps only 7 percent, suitable for crop production
under present techniques of cultivation. This analysis further
suggests that no more than 28 percent of the land should be
cultivated if using optimum techniques for soil and water conservation.
These numbers are remarkable since survey national
data from 1995 show 48 percent of total land area under active
cultivation. Assuming a total population of 7,630,997 in 1998,
the overall population density is 581 individuals per square
kilometer of cultivated land, or 989 per square kilometer of
land deemed cultivable.
This situation is clearly untenable and has catastrophic consequences
for the environment and for rural livelihood. Data
from the 1980s show a pattern of negative growth in agricultural
production combined with ongoing population increase
in the rural sector. Agriculture's share of total exports fell from
around 90 percent in the 1950s to less than 10 percent in the
late 1990s (see Agriculture, ch. 8). In terms of food consumption,
the data also show a decline of 33 percent in the number
of calories consumed per person per day since 1980.
Haiti's most acute environmental problem is undoubtedly
soil erosion. A high proportion of cultivated land is farmed far
beyond its carrying capacity, and forest cover has been largely
decimated for agricultural use. By deforesting the landscape
and degrading the land, agricultural forces have imposed acute
pressure on the resource base. By some estimates, the equivalent
of 6,000 hectares or more of arable land is lost annually
because of erosion. Perhaps 88 percent of erosion stems from
the cultivation of slopes that exceed 50 percent incline. Furthermore,
the application of landscape-wide conservation techniques
is complicated by the fragmentation of holdings. Recent
data suggest that average farm size is 1.8 hectares divided into
3.7 noncontiguous plots.
The productive potential of irrigated land is significantly
underused in Haiti; irrigated land is estimated to be less than
40,000 hectares. Technically, an additional 22,000 hectares
could be rehabilitated and brought back into production. By
some estimates, new investment in this sector could develop an
additional 80,000 hectares. A limiting factor is a decrease in the
quantity of surface water available for irrigation as a result of
the effects of reduced vegetative cover on river discharge.
There is evidence that base flows in Haiti's rivers and streams
are diminishing. Aside from its use in irrigation, surface water
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