Above: an irrigation channel (IDB Photo/Paul Constance)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti is set to receive a $15 million grant from the Inter-American Development Bank to support reforms in the country’s agricultural sector.

Farming currently accounts for around half of Haiti’s jobs, and almost 25 percent of the country’s national income.

The grant will go toward policy, legal and institutional reforms; it is the second in a series of operations supporting Haiti’s government as it seeks to address the agriculture sector.

The IDB is financing more than $200 million in investment projects in Haiti’s agriculture, including irrigation, rural value chains, watershed management and land tenure clarification.

The latter was the target of a similar $15 million grant last year from the IDB, which was complemented with $7 million from the Haiti Reconstruction Fund.

Around 60 percent of Haiti’s population lives in rural areas, according to the IDB.