Patrix Sévère the Minister of Agriculture, accompanied by several senior officials from the Ministry and the Artibonite Valley Development Organization (ODVA), recently visited the Artibonite Valley.

The purpose of this trip was to inquire about the difficulties facing by this production area. The Minister Sévère took the opportunity to discuss with the planters, the irrigators associations and the Coordination of the Project to Strengthen the National Production of Rice Seeds (RESPONSE) on the best measures to adopt to facilitate the availability of water on plots and quality seeds for the benefit of all producers in the region.

On the orders of the Minister, a mechanical shovel is already at work in the Grande-Saline canal and another machine is expected in order to quickly finish with this work for the benefit of several thousand farmers and breeders before starting work on same scale in several other canals of the Valley.

At the same time, several thousand bags of seeds were distributed. Jocelyn Jean, Director General of ODVA, who accompanied the delegation, said that through the REPONSE Project, 5,000 bags of seeds were made available to planters and each cooperative has already received a first batch of 80 bags.

This quantity, affirms the Minister, is not sufficient but he promised to do everything possible to find the balance in order to serve all the planters.

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