Quisqueya University

Financial inclusion and particularly bank inclusion is important for economic development and reducing inequality. Both academia and practitioners have been paying attention to financial inclusion. Yet, it remains an issue in many developing countries like Haiti. Over the past decade, Haitian central bank initiated a financial inclusion agenda, but there has been little in-depth analysis of the determinants of this socioeconomic policy outcome. With special attention on agricultural asset ownership, we analyzed for the first time the households’ characteristics influencing bank inclusion, using a multinomial logit regression model. The findings revealed that only 20.6% of the Haitian households had a bank account in 2016/2017, and the farming households were among the most excluded. The study confirmed that age, education, location, household size, wealth and exposure to the media significantly influenced bank inclusion in Haiti. It adds to the literature by revealing that agricultural asset ownership (land or livestock) was not a reliable determinant for improving bank inclusion in developing countries like Haiti. The study recommends both institutional financial policies to encourage closing the gap between farmers and banks.

A treated fabric device for emanating the volatile pyrethroid transfluthrin was recently developed in Tanzania that protected against night-biting Anopheles and Culex mosquitoes for several months. Here perceptions of community end users provided with such transfluthrin emanators, primarily intended to protect them against day-active Aedes vectors of human arboviruses that often attack people outdoors, were assessed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Following the distribution of transfluthrin emanators to participating households in poor-to-middle class urban neighbourhoods, questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews of end-user households were supplemented with conventional and Photovoice-based focus group discussions. Observations were assessed synthetically to evaluate user perceptions of protection and acceptability, and to solicit advice for improving and promoting them in the future. Many participants viewed emanators positively and several outlined various advantages over current alternatives, although some expressed concerns about smell, health hazards, bulkiness, unattractiveness and future cost. Most participants expressed moderate to high satisfaction with protection against mosquitoes, especially indoors. Protection against other arthropod pests was also commonly reported, although satisfaction levels were highly variable. Diverse use practices were reported, some of which probably targeted nocturnal Culex resting indoors, rather than Aedes attacking them outdoors during daylight hours. Perceived durability of protection varied: While many participants noted some slow loss over months, others noted rapid decline within days. A few participants specifically attributed efficacy loss to outdoor use and exposure to wind or moisture. Many expressed stringent expectations of satisfactory protection levels, with even a single mosquito bite considered unsatisfactory. Some participants considered emanators superior to fans, bedsheets, sprays and coils, but it is concerning that several preferred them to bed nets and consequently stopped using the latter. The perspectives shared by Haitian end-users are consistent with those from similar studies in Brazil and recent epidemiological evidence from Peru that other transfluthrin emanator products can protect against arbovirus infection. While these encouraging sociological observations contrast starkly with evidence of essentially negligible effects upon Aedes landing rates from parallel entomological assessments across Haiti, Tanzania, Brazil and Peru, no other reason to doubt the generally encouraging views expressed herein by Haitian end users could be identified.

Abstract Over the past decade, genomic selection (GS) has gained significant traction as a valuable tool for predicting the phenotypic performance in plant breeding populations and for expediting the development of new cultivars. Diverse statistical models and approaches have been developed to facilitate the integration of GS into plant breeding practices, with a growing emphasis on strategies that enhance accurate and resource‐efficient prediction. Since its inception in 2010, the sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] breeding program at Centre Haïtien d'Innovation en Biotechnologies et pour une Agriculture Soutenable has taken the lead in endeavors to cultivate and introduce varieties that exhibit resilience against both abiotic and biotic stresses. Among these challenges, drought stress holds particular prominence, given the reliance of growers on unpredictable rainfall patterns for successful sorghum production. The central objective of this study was to assess the predictive ability of genomic prediction models across varying environmental conditions in Haiti, employing two statistical methods. Our assessment encompassed 12 distinct sorghum traits, with genomic predictions conducted both within and across irrigated and water‐stress treatments, executed at different planting dates. Overall, the two methods showed similar results. Prediction accuracy was notably higher for within‐environment scenarios (ranging from 0.30 to 0.71) as opposed to across‐environment scenarios (ranging from 0.08 to 0.68). Furthermore, there was considerable variation in the prediction accuracy for all traits, with “total soluble solids” displaying the highest mean value (0.71), while “total stem number” exhibited the lowest (0.38). The attained genomic prediction accuracies in this study offer encouraging insights for the integration of GS strategies in small‐scale breeding programs, particularly those aimed at enhancing drought tolerance.

ABSTRACTDurable host plant resistance (HPR) to insect pests is critical for sustainable agriculture. Natural variation exists for aphid HPR in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) but the genetic architecture and phenotype has not been clarified for most sources. To assess the threat of a sorghum aphid (Melanaphis sorghi) biotype shift, we characterized the phenotype ofResistance to Melanaphis sorghi 1(RMES1) and contributing HPR architecture in globally-admixed populations selected under severe aphid infestation in Haiti. We foundRMES1reduces sorghum aphid fecundity but not bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi) fecundity, suggesting a discriminant HPR response typical of gene-for-gene interaction. A second resistant gene,RMES2, were more frequent thanRMES1resistant alleles in landraces and historic breeding lines.RMES2contributes early and mid-season aphid resistance in a segregating F2population, howeverRMES1was only significant with mid-season fitness. In a fixed population with high aphid resistance,RMES1andRMES2were selected for demonstrating a lack of significant antagonistic pleiotropy. Associations with resistance co-located with cyanogenic glucoside biosynthesis genes support additional HPR sources. Globally, therefore, a vulnerable HPR source (RMES1) is bolstered by a second common source of resistance in breeding programs (RMES2) which may be staving off a biotype shift.HIGHLIGHTThe globally-deployed sorghum aphid resistance gene,RMES1, reduces aphid reproduction and therefore is vulnerable to a biotype shift. A second major gene,RMES2, and cyanogenesis may increase global durability of resistance.

International audience

BackgroundOpen defecation (OD) is recognised as an important public health challenge in low-income and middle-income countries. Although agriculture is the main occupation in these countries, few if any study on OD has focused on agricultural households. In order to enhance the prevention of OD and contribute to a better understanding of this health-threatening behaviour, this paper analyses the socio-economic factors associated with OD practice among agricultural households in Haiti.MethodsThe study used primary data from 1269 households selected in 5 out of 10 geographic departments of Haiti surveyed in 2020–2021. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis were used to identify households’ characteristics that were significantly associated with OD. In addition, a multivariate analysis was performed using binary logistic regression to study the factors associated with the probability to defecate in the open.ResultsFindings show that one out of five (20.1%) agricultural households in Haiti practices OD. More than 26% of the households did not have any member with secondary school education level. Multivariate analysis revealed that in addition to the location, the probability of OD practices among agricultural households was correlated with socio-economic factors such as education, access to the media, plot number and livestock, level of specialisation in the agriculture, agricultural income and participation in local organisations.ConclusionWhile Haiti is struggling with cholera among other health issues, this paper sheds light on factors associated with OD, a health-threatening and unsustainable sanitation behaviour. According to the results, in addition to toilet acquisition subsidies, awareness campaigns need to make use of mass media and local organisations particularly women and community ones. Elimination of OD among agricultural households is of great significance for better quality of foods and vegetables at watershed level.

Understanding sorghum response to water stress at different developmental stages is important for developing sorghum varieties with improved tolerance to drought. This study set out to finely characterize key agro-physiological responses and water use of sorghum subjected to different drought scenarios. A greenhouse experiment was conducted using a DroughtSpotter facility that enables real-time quantification of water use by gravimetric tracking. Four different water treatments were assessed: (i) early vegetative drought stress (DS1), (ii) DS1 plus recovery (DS1R), (iii) late vegetative drought stress (DS2), and (iv) well-watered (WW). Plant pheno-morphology and yield data were recorded. Leaf fluorescence and photosynthesis were continuously recorded throughout the experiment. Our results showed that green leaf number and plant leaf area were more affected by DS2 than DS1 and delayed plant flowering. Nevertheless, plants in DS2 were taller and produced higher stem and leaf biomass compared to DS1. No significant difference was recorded in grain yield between DS1 and DS2 but were outperformed by DS1R and WW. The transpiration and photosynthetic rates were shown to decrease at the same time as the stomatal conductance. This can therefore be assimilated to a stomatal down-regulation limiting CO2 uptake. However, the increase in intercellular CO2 concentration is likely to indicate the presence of CO2 in the substomatal cavity that was not conveyed to the carboxylation sites. This suggests a non-stomatal limitation of the photosynthesis. Moreover, the plants recovered quite well from DS1, and this was more prominent for physiological parameters than morphological ones. Globally, water use efficiency (WUE) for DS2 was higher compared to WW and DS1 treatments, confirming the growing point differentiation as a critical stage where drought stress should be avoided to ensure yield and better WUE. Adaptation responses were related to the reduction of transpiration through plant leaf area reduction, the reduction of stomatal conductance, and the increase of intercellular CO2 limiting photosynthesis. Further studies focusing on the biomarkers of stress and transcriptomic analyses are needed to provide further insight into the drought adaptation mechanisms of this line.

The COVID-19 crisis is impacting the reconfiguration of food systems at different scales. In poor countries where food insecurity had already been a major problem, the urban population under the lockdown often had to cope alone with shortages of food and access to it. In the poorest country in the Americas, the urban population adapted the food system by intensifying the practice of urban agricultural activities. In this exploratory research, using a sample including urban dwellers that were engaged in urban agriculture and those who were not, we investigated the following question: Did urban agriculture linked to COVID-19 represent an appropriate and innovative strategy for the urban food system resilience? Our results confirm that the Haitian urban population used urban agriculture as an innovative and appropriate food resilience strategy. They produced varieties chosen for their very rapid production character and were able to cope successfully with the crisis, and also have lessons to share with other actors and countries.