Saturday, Pierre Guitho Laurore, the new Minister of Agriculture accompanied among others by the agronomist Arnoux Sévrerin, Director General of Ministry, of Deputy Director, the agronomist Pierre Karly Jean-Jeune and the agronomist Talot Bertrand, Coordinator of Public Relations and Communication was on tour in the Artibonite Valley in order to explore farmers fields, collect the complaint of farmers and producers and see to the implementation of agricultural infrastructure projects.

The delegation visited the locality of Poterie (about 3 km from Pont-Sondé) to assess clearing works which will end around May 15 nd will allow producers to irrigate 7,000 hectares of agricultural area. Note that this project is carried out within the framework of interventions of Feed the Future and of Programme "Chanje Lavi Plantè" funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Ministry's delegation then visited th communes of Bas-Deschappelles, Fougère, Canot, Coussin, Bocozelle among others. The biggest problem reported by the irrigation associations during this tour, was the absence of channel cleaning for over 3 years. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture said they were very concerned about this problem and promised to adopt measures to accompany the farmers promptly.

Also during the day, the Minister accompanied by members of the mission met with the Agronomist Franco Jean-Pierre, Director General of Development Agency of the Artibonite Valley (ODVA), on some crucial problems of the agricultural sector of the Artibonite Valley.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre