NewsWhore
11-04-2011, 04:30 PM
Reporting on findings in a recent analysis of government spending, international development agency Oxfam says that budget allocations to farming show that the political class gives little importance to the sector. Intermon Oxfam said that the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement has ruined national producers.
"In the 1980s, the government spent 14.1% of all revenues in farming. In the 1990s, spending had declined to 9.6%. But in the past decade, the government spent less than 5%," says the report.
Intermon Oxfam says that food and farming are at risk in the Dominican Republic.
"Decades of negligence in farming has resulted in the situation the country is in with few alternatives for replacing expensive imports with domestic production or making the most of high food prices abroad and stimulating farm exports and rural employment," concludes the report, produced for the Crece campaign. According to Intermon Oxfam, indiscriminate imports are not only affecting producers, but also the final consumer who is hard pressed to pay for the goods.
The report says that for the period 2007-2010 when the DR-CAFTA has been implemented, food imports from the US increased four times more than local production, which means that local products are being displaced. "And that is only the beginning of the markets opening," warned the organization. The report says that former small farmers have migrated to the cities, and the remaining farms only survive today by importing low- cost labor. "It is about the poor hiring the destitute," say the experts.
Intermon Oxfam urges the government to spend on farming to increase and modernize irrigation capacity, adding that the improvement of access roads was urgent, as well as access to credit, which has always been a key obstacle to farm development.
The organization forecast that food prices would continue to rise, projecting increases of 120-180% by 2030.
In the Dominican Republic, for many years farmers in the San Jose de Ocoa agriculture area have been calling for the repair of the key highway to the mountain area. Yesterday, the Ministry of Public Works signed a commitment to repair the 39 critical points after years of delays.
See http://intermonoxfam.org/es/campanas/proyectos/crece
www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/growing-a-better-future-010611-en.pdf (http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/growing-a-better-future-010611-en.pdf)
www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/8790/56/Oxfam-Gobierno-dominicano-descuida-el-campo-y-DR-CAFTA-arruina-productores.html (http://www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/8790/56/Oxfam-Gobierno-dominicano-descuida-el-campo-y-DR-CAFTA-arruina-productores.html)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
"In the 1980s, the government spent 14.1% of all revenues in farming. In the 1990s, spending had declined to 9.6%. But in the past decade, the government spent less than 5%," says the report.
Intermon Oxfam says that food and farming are at risk in the Dominican Republic.
"Decades of negligence in farming has resulted in the situation the country is in with few alternatives for replacing expensive imports with domestic production or making the most of high food prices abroad and stimulating farm exports and rural employment," concludes the report, produced for the Crece campaign. According to Intermon Oxfam, indiscriminate imports are not only affecting producers, but also the final consumer who is hard pressed to pay for the goods.
The report says that for the period 2007-2010 when the DR-CAFTA has been implemented, food imports from the US increased four times more than local production, which means that local products are being displaced. "And that is only the beginning of the markets opening," warned the organization. The report says that former small farmers have migrated to the cities, and the remaining farms only survive today by importing low- cost labor. "It is about the poor hiring the destitute," say the experts.
Intermon Oxfam urges the government to spend on farming to increase and modernize irrigation capacity, adding that the improvement of access roads was urgent, as well as access to credit, which has always been a key obstacle to farm development.
The organization forecast that food prices would continue to rise, projecting increases of 120-180% by 2030.
In the Dominican Republic, for many years farmers in the San Jose de Ocoa agriculture area have been calling for the repair of the key highway to the mountain area. Yesterday, the Ministry of Public Works signed a commitment to repair the 39 critical points after years of delays.
See http://intermonoxfam.org/es/campanas/proyectos/crece
www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/growing-a-better-future-010611-en.pdf (http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/growing-a-better-future-010611-en.pdf)
www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/8790/56/Oxfam-Gobierno-dominicano-descuida-el-campo-y-DR-CAFTA-arruina-productores.html (http://www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/8790/56/Oxfam-Gobierno-dominicano-descuida-el-campo-y-DR-CAFTA-arruina-productores.html)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)