Konbit Pou Ayiti

www.Alterpresse.org, 16 October 2009

UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION

A group of several peasant organizations presented a petition to the Haitian Parliament containing 31,198 signatures against the proposed development of plantations of the agro-fuel jatropha on the land of Haitian peasants, noted Alterpresse.org.  

“This struggle which came about during the thirty-fifth anniversary in March 2008 of the Peasant Movement of Papaye is about raising awareness of the call to all of society to contribute to a mobilization against this project to exterminate the peasants,” stated Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the group “4 je kontre” (literally, the convergence of two pairs of eyes) several hours before the petition was submitted to the Haitian Parliament.

Several dozen peasants, representing the ten departments of the country, marched from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Turgeau (Port-au-Prince) with slogans and demands. “The little earth that is the country Haiti, that our ancestors left to us, must produce native food to nourish the population; national food production – yes; production of agro-fuels, no; Down with the production of gas for the tanks of foreign cars; Down with all death projects against the peasants,” are among the demands of the peasants who have the support of the international peasant movement Via Campesina.

Only a minority of people who part of the multinational agro-business will profit from the establishment of a project to produce agro-fuels. The Haitian peasant organizations prefer to talk about “agro-fuels” in lieu of calling them “biofuel” or “biodiesel” (the term “bio” refers to organic life), since the structure of "modernity" with the plant "Jatropha", better known as gwo metsiyen in the country, will lead to a rather dramatic increase in the purchase cost of acres of land, hence an increase in food prices, and the eventual expulsion of peasants from farmland, as well as the
systematic destruction of the natural environment. "Monoculture (of jatropha)does not encourage the protection of forests. Faced with the consequences of climate change, the prospects of dwindling oil reserves in a few decades, the only chance (of survival) for the planet lies in the consolidation of peasant agriculture,” stated Jean-Baptiste.

Instead of finding ways out of poverty and misery, the decision to develop the production of jatropha to meet international fuel needs will enrich the promoters of agribusiness in the world, including Haiti. For the coalition of peasant organizations "4 je kontre" there is a contradiction between the need for food on the planet (where 2 billion people worldwide do not find enough food to survive) and global demands for biofuels, the cultivation of which plays a significant role in the global food crisis.
"The production of 1 liter of agrofuels (from soybean and rapeseed) requires consumption of 14 thousand liters of water throughout the process. One liter of agrofuels from beet requires consummation of 1,400 liters of water. 1 liter of agrofuels from cane to sugar needs 2,500 liters of water.And produce 1 liter of agrofuels from the Jatropha plant requires use of 20 thousand liters of water,” according to research conducted by the University Twente in Holland.

Citizens of the Dominican Republic began production of jatropha on land irrigated in Cerca La Source (Central Plateau, the northeast of the capital). The jatropha production in Haiti, located on arable land in Thomonde (Central Plateau) and Marmont (Hinche, Central Plateau), also in the north,
northeast and northwest of Haiti, is denounced by the Haitian peasant organizations.

"Certainly, this process of process of jatropha production is done on land that is ‘rich’. But this ‘good land’ is not enough, because the jatropha plants require a lot of water.”

A company based in Miami and called "Haitian American Agro Industries", has already started production of jatropha on 100 hectares of land (some 21 miles) at its disposal in Haiti . Does it consider the early reign of pain, with the introduction of the "genocide" of peasants, against which "we call the collection of all energies, an awareness in the Haitian society to force the plan to exterminate the nation to fail, says the “4 je kontre” coalition. The National Network for Haitian Sovereignty and Food Security (Renhassa), the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP), the coordination of regional organizations in South-East (Cros), the National Peasant Movement of Congress Papaya (Mpnkp), Tet Kole ti Peyizan, the National Coordination of Peasant Women Haitian (Konafap) are the members of the group "4 je kontre" which enjoys the support of the NGO Action Aid International in the fight against the development of production Jatropha on land in Haiti. [rc apr 16/10/2009 12:00]