Above: the Inter-American Development Bank’s headquarters

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti will soon receive a $14 million grant to help the country’s government reduce plant and livestock losses and increase exports.

The grant, which was approved by the Inter-American Development Bank’s board of directors, is being matched by $2 million in funding from the government of Haiti.

The funding will go toward improving agricultural health services in Haiti, from modernizing procedures, capacity building, improving diagnostic capacities, risk analysis and other features.

It will also fund efforts to decentralize field services across the country and improve interaction with producers and private sector professionals.

Haiti’s agriculture sector accounted for almost half of Haiti’s GDP until the 1990s, a number that has dropped to about 22.5 percent in recent years.

Part of that reduction has been attributed to “institutional weaknesses in responding to vulnerability to pests and diseases,” the IDB said.