“Agriculture is one of the economic sectors that has provided the most coordinated response to the January 12 earthquake,” says Alfredo Mena, the Representative of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in Haiti.

Mena believes the country’s agricultural and rural sector has two powerful tools for responding to the tragedy: a program for emergency aid and support for food production, and a national agricultural investment plan.

Both documents were drafted under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Development and the Minister, Joanas Gué, with technical assistance from several agencies, including IICA.