beginning Miami rice A peasant association

One farmer end

the road to market

From the hill above the town, the sunrise catches flocks of white egrets skimming over the low haze of woodsmoke and landing in the green squares of the rice paddies. Tiny women carrying white plastic buckets on their heads move toward the river to fetch water. An irrigation canal sluices water for the rice from a bend in the Artibonite River.

In the farmyards, farmers begin to thresh the rice, whacking the bundles of stalks against the ground to shake lose the grains, then spreading them out to dry. When the market at the center of town opens, market women will lay out their baskets of rice and chaff--sold as pig feed--and wait for the hagglers.

Rice is the big cash crop for the small farmers of the Artibonite Valley, Haiti's largest rice-producing region. Ti Rivyè (Petite Rivière de l'Artibonite in French) is a major market town.

Miami rice

Only a couple of decades ago, Haiti was self-sufficient in this important component of its people's diet. But with the forced opening of the Haitian economy beginning in the 1980s, cheap "Miami rice" from the United States has grabbed a growing shareof the market. U.S. control of imports has helped to keep out lower-priced rice from Thailand.

Haitian consumers sometimes benefit from lower prices. Many small growers of the Artibonite, however, are drowning in the flood of imports. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, 63 percent of the farmers work plots of a quarter-hectare or less (a hectare is about 2.5 acres). A succession of military dictatorships has eliminated supports, including tariffs on imports, credit, seeds and irrigations systems, that once made these plots economically viable.

U.S. rice growers and traders, however, continue to benefit from heavy American subsidies, asserts the non-governmental Washington Office on Haiti. Rice Corporation of Haiti, owned by U.S. agribusiness giant Erly Industries, now imports roughly half the rice consumed in Haiti and has a "virtual monopoly" on rice imports here, according to U.S. Agency for International Development.

weak gourdes

"The real problem here is that the U.S. dollar is too strong," said Volmy de Rosier, the town treasurer. "Rice farmers have to buy a lot of imported fertilizers and pesticides in dollars. When the dollar goes up, their expenses go up with it. They don't export rice, though, so they don't benefit from the weak Haitian gourde. And Haitian consumers still prefer 'Miami rice' from the States."

Newer strains of rice, developed in the U.S. during the Green Revolution of the 1940s and 1950s, require more fertilizers and pesticides, which Haitians cannot afford, rather than more human labor. As farmers are forced off the land, many end up swelling the already hellish bidonvilles around the cities.

"People have suffered so long," said Father Gustana Valcourt, a Catholic priest. "The farmers here have their associations, but their level of technology is low. They need to raise it, and for that we need stability and continuity."

Peasants continue to be hamstrung by high land rents, transport costs, and taxes, and usurious credit, according to the newsletter Haiti Info. A few powerful middlemen have traditionally dominated distribution and marketing here, enforcing their system with gunmen.

A peasant association

The Association of Agricultural and Peasant Groups of the Artibonite (AGAPA) encourages farmers to meet in small groups to discuss their problems, and form cooperatives to work land together. Several of these groups then pool resources in local committees.

AGAPA helps these committees build silos to store their grain, so that they are not captives of the low price at harvest time. They also work on reforestation of bare hillsides, potable water projects , and healthcare training.

Defending their members in land conflicts is a particularly dangerous task, as big landowners have killed some peasants in these disputes. The courts are still dominated by holdover judges from the military regime, AGAPA organizers said. Although Parliament is considering a land reform, the government has yet to begin a process of land distribution.

Water for irrigation is also a sensitive issue. The local agency charged with water distribution is corrupt, AGAPA organizers said. It siphons off money intended for irrigation improvements, so much water that could be used for crops escapes downriver. AGAPA is seeking funds for pumps, which would allow them to greatly expand irrigated areas.

One farmer

Michel Pierre-Louis, a barefoot man in his fifties wearing a straw hat, lives outside of Ti Rivyè near the banks of the Estere, a tributary of the Artibonite. The rains have washed all the topsoil off the mountains down into the Estere, choking it with silt. Every summer, it floods almost up to his house.

Pierre-Louis farms a hectare (about 2.5 acres) of irrigated rice further downstream, a larger plot than most in the valley. Like most other farmers here, he also grows some millet and corn.

His wife died a few years ago, and his son and two daughters are in the capital finishing high school--unusual for farmers' children. Pierre-Louis doesn't think they'll come back to farming.

Many of the local farmers work in konbit , the old African system of work-sharing still common in Haiti. But Pierre-Louis prefers to go it alone. He belongs to the local improvement association, though, and helps them maintain the irrigation system.

Imported fertilizer from the Dominican Republic runs him $360 yearly, more than the Haitian average per capita income. The interest on the money he has to borrow is another big expense. This year, he says, despite a decent harvest and price, he lost money.

Peter Costantini is Seattle correspondent for Inter Press Service, a news wire based in Amsterdam. He has previously covered elections in Mexico and Nicaragua.

A version of this story was published by Inter Press Service.