The performance of Haiti’s agricultural sector has been disappointing. Between 1985 and 1989, agriculture’s average annual growth rate was -0.5%, continuing the negative trend that began in 1980. Agricultural value added has been decreasing even though land and labor resources allocated to agricultural production have been increasing. Land and labor productivity losses have mainly resulted from the deterioration in the quality of the country’s capital stock (e.g., soil properties, irrigation systems and roads), reflecting a political and economic environment in which investment has not taken place. Yields, with the exception of rice, show a negative trend and are becoming increasingly lower than those recorded in other countries of the region. The State’s failure to supply much needed public goods has been the key factor hampering the development of an institutional framework conducive to growth.