The Artibonite Valley, Haiti’s agricultural heartland and historically one of the country’s most productive food-producing regions, came under increasing gang pressure in 2022 as criminal networks that had consolidated control in Port-au-Prince began extending their reach northward along road and river corridors. The expansion of gang activity into the Artibonite threatened not just the immediate security of its communities but the food production that the entire country depended on.
Farmers in the Artibonite began reporting gang demands for payments in exchange for permission to work their land, transport their crops, or simply move through areas of gang influence. The extortion demands varied in their specifics but followed the same basic criminal logic: pay or face violence. For smallholder farmers operating on subsistence margins, the addition of criminal taxation to their already precarious economics could push them below viability.
The presence of gangs along the road network connecting the Artibonite to Port-au-Prince and other markets disrupted the supply chains that moved rice, vegetables, and other agricultural products to urban consumers. Farmers who had grown crops faced the problem of getting them to market safely and economically. Some chose not to plant at all rather than invest in production they might not be able to sell.
Food security analysts warned that the extension of gang activity into the Artibonite could have severe consequences for national food security well beyond the violence itself. The Artibonite’s domestic rice production, while covering only a fraction of national demand, was an important supplementary source that a loss of production could not easily be replaced with imports in an environment of currency depreciation and import logistics challenges.