The statements of the president of the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD), Osmar Benitezabout what the countryside does not need more Haitian labor generated the support of several agricultural representatives, with the exception of the leader of San Juan Robin Alcántara, who assures that with “All the respect it deserves”, the field is far from being technical to do without that workforce.
The president of the Dominican Peasant Movement (MCP), Ernesto del Rosario Castro, affirmed that the fields can be worked by Dominican laborin collaboration with farmers and producers.
Yesterday, del Rosario Castro said that “Manpower is always needed, but I think we can use more Dominican labor and that the producers give better benefits to the Dominicans.
Raphael Pepe Abreupresident of the National Confederation of Union Unity (CNUS), stated that “Haitian labor must decrease more and more every day and that every day what must be done is to vindicate the rights of workers and make field work attractive to the Dominicans”.
Abreu stated that there “too much weight of the rent of private machinery for the preparation of State lands and considered “that although the private sector participates, the State directly, it is that it should give it the technical assistance of machinery.”
It added that “in this way, the cost of using these technical implements, as assumed by the State, is different, it is made easier for the parcelero and it can produce at lower costs than it produces if the private party intervenes.” Martín Vivar Piña, former president and current advisor to the MCD, said that “a large amount of labor is Haitian” and assured that “they are a necessity.” Others think
“Dominican production is based to a large extent on Haitian labor, the immigration issue is the most sensitive issue that our development currently has, and our position is that it deserves to be regularized; but to a large extent production, construction, rice, coffee, cocoa and even tourism has a significant impact on foreign labor, not only from Haiti, which in this case concerns us,” he explained. Fernando Puig, executive director of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce and Production.
I agree with Benítez’s opinion, said Oliverio Espaillat, former president of Fenarroz. In the cultivation of rice, more labor is not necessary, what the producer needs is to continue advancing in the mechanization of work since the crop allows it, because all the work can be mechanized.
While Iván Tió said that rice cultivation can be technified, but not bananasbanana, tobacco, and livestock, because it could bring shortages due to lack of production.
From San Juan
Robinson Castro, president of the Fundación Red Agropecuaria del Valle de San Juan, said that with “all the respect that Osmar Benitez deserves,” he disagrees with his approach.
He stated that, apparently, Benitez will be visiting demonstrative, luxurious farms, because the reality that is lived in the countryside is different and is far from being technical to dispense with that agricultural labor force. He said that different tasks are needed to apply technologies, large investments, and support from the State in soft conditions.