The Dominican Republic: Agriculture in the Caribbean
The Dominican Republic is a small Caribbean nation occupying the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti. With a total territory of almost 49.000 square kilometers, the Dominican Republic is more than twice the size of the state of New Hampshire. Geographically, rugged highlands and mountains alongside fertile valleys and a long coastline dominate the Dominican Republic. Similarly, the Dominican Republic has a total population of 10.6 million citizens, of which some 80% lives in a city or urban setting. Currently, the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) is of approximately US$150 billion and the country has experienced positive economic growth upwards of 5.0% throughout recent years. Furthermore, the country has a large and well-developed tourism industry. The Dominican national economy is divided into 5% agriculture, 33% manufacturing, and 62% services. However, the agriculture industry utilizes about 52% of the national territory, while another 41% is forested. Likewise, the Dominican Republic’s agricultural industry employs 15% of the national labor force, while manufacturing employs about 21% and services employ another 64%. The location of the Dominican Republic is strategic within the Caribbean region given its central location.
In terms of natural resources, the Dominican Republic has nickel, bauxite, gold, silver, and arable land. Within the manufacturing industry, the Dominican Republic focuses on sugar and tobacco processing, mining, textiles, cement, electrical components, and medical devices production. Meanwhile, the Dominican agricultural industry has as main products cocoa, tobacco, sugarcane, coffee, cotton, rice, beans, potatoes, corn, bananas, cattle, pigs, dairy products, beef, and eggs. Since 2007, the country has been a full member within the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which has expanded trading and investment opportunities for the country and its domestic industries. Similarly, the Dominican Republic takes part in the Central American Integration System (SICA), which seeks to foment economic and political cooperation as well as harmonize trade regulations and agricultural standards for the region. This article explores the status of agriculture and land distribution in the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic: Agriculture in the Caribbean
In terms of trade, the Dominican Republic’s main partners are the United States, Haiti, China, and Canada. In the Dominican Republic, unfortunately, some 1.3 million people suffer from undernourishment. Likewise, throughout recent years, the average per capita protein intake of animal origin in the country has been of 28 grams daily. Meanwhile, cereals, roots, and tubers represent about 32% of the food energy intake in the Dominican Republic. Simultaneously, land use in the country has evolved throughout the last half century. In 1961, permanent pastures and meadows in the Dominican Republic covered 1.2 million hectares, while arable land totaled another 720.000 hectares, and permanent crops accounted for approximately 270.000 hectares. In 2014, permanent pastures and meadows in the country still accounted for 1.2 million hectares, while arable land represented 800.000 hectares, and permanent crops accounted for approximately 360.000 hectares. Finally, in 2014, the agricultural industry in the Dominican Republic devoted almost 189.000 hectares of land to cereals production and yielded more than 755.000 metric tons.
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