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Dominican Republic Food Crops
As part of the national dish of rice and beans, rice
was the
Dominican Republic's most important food crop in the late
1980s.Rice production expanded significantly in the
post-Trujillo
era, and by late 1979 the country had achieved
self-sufficiency
for the first time. Rice production, however, waned in the
1980s,
forcing renewed imports. In 1987 about 112,000 hectares
yielded
320,000 tons of rice, an amount inadequate to meet
national
demand, but well above the level of 210,000 tons in 1970.
Declines in production were related to a series of
economic
factors. Rice subsidies to the urban poor, who enjoyed
less than
two kilograms of rice a week as part of Inespre's food
basket, or
canasta popular, were generally at odds with the
goal of
increased output. The government's land reform measures
also may
have had a negative impact on rice yields; IAD's rice
holdings,
which rendered 40 percent of the nation's rice, were
noticeably
less productive than private rice holdings. In the late
1980s,
the government continued to involve itself extensively in
the
rice industry by supplying irrigation systems to over 50
percent
of rice farmers as well as technical support through the
Rice
Research Center in Juma, near Bonao. The government also
moved to
increase the efficiency of local distribution in 1987,
when it
transferred rice marketing operations from Inespre to the
Agricultural Bank of the Dominican Republic (Banco
Agrícola de la
República Dominicana--Bagricola) and then to the private
sector.
The other principal grains and cereals consumed in the
Dominican Republic included corn (or maize), sorghum, and
imported wheat. Corn, native to the island, performed
better than
many food crops in the 1980s because of the robust growth
of the
poultry industry, which used 95 percent of the corn crop
as
animal feed. The strong demand for feed notwithstanding,
Inespre's low prices for corn and other distortions in the
local
market caused by donated food from foreign sources
decreased
incentives for farmers and reduced output during the late
1970s
and the early 1980s. As of 1987, corn covered 28,000
hectares,
and it supplied 43,000 tons, an amount far below domestic
needs.
The cultivation of sorghum, a drought-resistant crop also
used as
a feed, expanded rapidly in the 1980s because of sorghum's
suitability as a rotation crop on winter vegetable farms
and as a
new crop on newly idle cane fields. An estimated 16,000
hectares
yielded 49,000 tons of sorghum in 1987, more than double
1980's
output of 23,000 tons. Wheat was another increasingly
important
cereal because Dominicans were consuming ever-greater
quantities
of the commodity, donated primarily by the United States
and
France. As a result, the country's two mills were
functioning at
full capacity in the late 1980s. The government was
reluctant to
do something about Dominicans' preference for the heavily
subsidized wheat over local cereals for fear of violent
protests
by poorer consumers.
Other major food crops included starchy staples such as
plantains and an assortment of tubers. Dominicans consumed
large
quantities of plantains, usually fried, because of their
abundance, sweet taste, and low cost. An estimated 31,000
hectares of trees produced 251,000 tons of plantain in
1987.
Peasants routinely cultivated and consumed root crops,
such as
cassava, taro, sweet potatoes, and yams because they were
cheap
and easy to cultivate. Production of these basic food
crops did
not fare well in the late 1970s and the 1980s because of
low
government prices and the exodus of population to the
cities.
Some 17,000 hectares sown with cassava, the most common
tuber,
produced approximately 98,000 tons of that crop in the
late
1980s.
Beans, a dietary staple and the chief source of protein
for
many Dominicans, were grown throughout the countryside.
Although
the country was generally self-sufficient in the
universally
popular red bean, shifts in output created the need to
import
some beans during the 1980s. Red beans covered 57,000
hectares,
yielding 39,000 tons, whereas black beans were grown on
only
9,000 hectares, yielding only 4,000 tons. Other varieties
generated even smaller harvests.
Dominicans also grew an assortment of fruits,
vegetables,
spices, and other foods. These included bananas, peanuts,
guava,
tamarind, passion fruit, soursop, coconut, tomatoes,
carrots,
lettuce, cabbage, scallions, cilantro, onions, and garlic.
Data as of December 1989
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