Is Sugarcane Ethanol Haiti’s Salvation?

The Haitian crisis will continue to be a problem for this Hemisphere unless Haiti can become economically sustaining in a way that would ensure that its huge lower class gets to share in the spoils.  Supply-side economics interventions that promise a trickling down of the benefits to the lower class simply will not work.  For decades the wealth has remained with the minority while the vast majority continued to languish in abject poverty—so significant trickling down is being recorded.  For that reason, the candidate model for the country’s economic rejuvenation must involve interventions that go directly to the lower and working class.

With that said, we believe that the creation of a sugarcane based ethanol industry in Haiti as obtains in Brazil (world’s largest producer of ethanol), could be the potion that the doctor ordered.  With the enormous amount of abandoned and
waste lands in Haiti, we can quickly see the emergence of a new middle class of small sugar cane planters in much the same way that banana worked for Saint Lucia in the ‘green gold’ years, transforming Haiti into one of the world’s leading producers of Green Energy in the near future.

The people of Haiti need to be able to provide for themselves and end that century long poverty.  It is a very vicious cycle for those people; since they are poor, they must depend of government and others.  We also know that the more dependent that people are on government is the more susceptible to corruption and the politically related undesirables that characterizes the Haitian experience.
Our idea will economically empower families away from the dependence on government and drug lords.  While we are confident that this idea will work for Haiti, its people and government must step up to the plate.
The Land ownership problem must be addressed.  The government must find creative ways to make lands available to those who are willing to farm.  It will have to deal with the fact that most of the lands in Haiti are owned by a few.
Apart from this impediment, Haiti would do well to get going with this initiative.  Sugarcane production is nothing new to Haiti. In fact there are still quite a few Sugarcane farms on the coast of Haiti which supports a dying Sugar Industry (that is sugar production and not ethanol as we are suggesting here).
In addition, thousands of workers periodically migrate to the Dominican Republic to do temporary work on sugar plantations there—so the labour force is experienced.  Haiti got to know sugarcane as earlier as Columbus’ second voyage.