The challenges facing Haitian farmers are varied and while seemingly insurmountable for them, would require but some basic intervention. Some are a matter of economics, others infrastructure and finally access to modern technological methods using resources they already have or they could obtain in organized groups. Our goal is to facilitate just that. Whether its sharing knowledge on organic farming methods, putting in motion sustainable programs or organizing farmers into groups with greater purchasing and marketing power - Farm Haiti is looking for solutions to the challenges these farmers face.
CHALLENGES: Uphill Battles Facing Haitian Farmers
The use of purchased inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, and irrigation, is rare; farmers in Haiti employ traditional agricultural practices more than do farmers in any other part of the Western Hemisphere. Small rural farmers apply mostly natural fertilizers, such as manure, mulch, and bat guano. Large landowners consume most of the country's small amounts of chemical fertilizers, and they benefited from subsidized fertilizers imported from the Dominican Republic and mixed in Port-au-Prince. Five importers control the 400,000 kilograms of pesticides that entered the country each year from 1970 to 1990; malaria carrying mosquitoes and rodents in the rice fields were the main targets of pesticide application. Most rural cultivators used small hand tools, such as hoes, machetes, digging sticks, and a local machete-like tool called the serpette. There was an average of one tractor per 1,700 hectares; most farmers considered such machinery inappropriate for use on tiny plots scattered along deeply graded hillsides. The insecurity of land tenure further discouraged the use of capital inputs.
The minimal amount of research on agriculture and the limited number of extension officers that MARNDR (Ministère de l'Agriculture des Ressources Naturelles et du Développement Rural) provide give little assistance to already low levels of farming technology. Foreign organizations, such as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, carried out the most research. Foreign organizations also provided more technical assistance in agriculture than the government.
Small rural farmers limited access to credit also helped to explain the traditional nature of farming. Small farmers also lacked access to credit. Informal credit markets flourished, but credit was not always available at planting time. When credit was available, it was usually provided at usurious rates. The country's major public financial institutions provided loans to the agricultural sector, but this lending benefited less than 10 percent of all farmers. Major credit sources included the Agricultural Credit Bureau, agriculture credit societies, credit unions, cooperatives, and institutions created by nongovernmental organizations.
These are among the many challenges faced by most small rural farmers. Below are Farm Haiti's initiatives to address such issues.
The minimal amount of research on agriculture and the limited number of extension officers that MARNDR (Ministère de l'Agriculture des Ressources Naturelles et du Développement Rural) provide give little assistance to already low levels of farming technology. Foreign organizations, such as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, carried out the most research. Foreign organizations also provided more technical assistance in agriculture than the government.
Small rural farmers limited access to credit also helped to explain the traditional nature of farming. Small farmers also lacked access to credit. Informal credit markets flourished, but credit was not always available at planting time. When credit was available, it was usually provided at usurious rates. The country's major public financial institutions provided loans to the agricultural sector, but this lending benefited less than 10 percent of all farmers. Major credit sources included the Agricultural Credit Bureau, agriculture credit societies, credit unions, cooperatives, and institutions created by nongovernmental organizations.
These are among the many challenges faced by most small rural farmers. Below are Farm Haiti's initiatives to address such issues.
Fertilizer
Chemical fertilizers are currently not a financial option nor is it good for the soil, this is why we encourage numerous organic fertilizer methods. Planting nitrogen fixing plants next to high yielding crop producing plants is a great system called alley farming. One such plant also has countless uses as:
1.) heating up the pile for faster decompostion
2.) briquets for fuel
3.) handicraft material
4.) thatch; can be used for homes, chicken coups and sheds
5.) essential oil from the roots and lastly serves as
6.) animal feed when planted on steep mountain/hill sides its not competing with food producing farmland.
1.) heating up the pile for faster decompostion
2.) briquets for fuel
3.) handicraft material
4.) thatch; can be used for homes, chicken coups and sheds
5.) essential oil from the roots and lastly serves as
6.) animal feed when planted on steep mountain/hill sides its not competing with food producing farmland.
Machinery
Investing in capital equipment is a difficult challenge. But cooperatives can give greater power to rural farmers. Through such cooperatives farmers gain exposure to importers who have selected small affordable tractors for Haiti. In number the purchase of tractors, harvesters, planters and plow machines is achievable. Over time the farmers can be educated on its use & maintenance. In such programs farmers learn the shared benefits of cooperative farming and share success and failures which also creates a unique environment for encouraging younger farmers.
Research
Say the word “sustainable,” and most people in agriculture agree it means increased profits, sound stewardship of the air, water and soil, and improved quality of life for farming communities. But there are almost as many ways to achieve these goals as there are farmers in Haiti.There is a storehouse of knowledge that could easily double the profits of the average farmer today. As cheap foreign subsidized foods flood Haiti's shores Haitian farmers have the greatest need to research available in sustainable programs that can keep them earning a living to provide for the needs of their families.
Veterinary
Regular veterinary care in rural farm in Haiti is almost nonexistent. While these farmers are aware of its benefits much like they are aware of the benefits of medical attention - it is simply out of their reach. Programs that organize these farmers into groups or cooperatives would create the basis for group purchases of basic animal medications, attracting and scheduling veterinarians to visit a region and more importantly to educate these farmers on basic steps they can take in choices of feed, proper housing and care for their livestock.
Pollination
Pollination is a prerequisite for fertilization. Fertilization allows the flower to develop seeds. Some flowers will develop seeds as a result of self-pollination, when pollen and pistil are from the same plant, often (but not always) from the same flower. Other plants require cross-pollination: pollen and pistil must be from different plants. Most plants need help moving pollen from one flower to the pistil of another. Wind moves the pollen for some plants such as grasses like corn. Animal pollinators move pollen for many other flowering plants. Animals that are known to be good pollinators of flowers include bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths, some flies, some wasps, and nectar feeding bats. Programs designed to educate farmers on techniques for encouraging much needed natural processes like these mean more seed, larger and more uniform produce - not to mention the financial benefits of such a by product as the sale of honey and other by-products such as soap and candles, etc.
Nurseries
Many nurseries are too far away for rural farmers. Farmers have daily chores that must be done and many of the nurseries are more than a days travel for a poor farmer traveling by foot or via public transportation. Having access to nurseries that can properly support small rural farmers or educating these farmers on how to develop nurseries of their own is crucial for them to establish a more varied crop and to participate in much needed reforestation of the country side, with both fruit bearing and lumber providing trees.
Pesticide
There are countless homemade natural pesticide, insecticide, insect repellent, organic pesticide, biocide and fungicide recipes comprised of materials within the financial reach of small rural farmers - many of which are unknown in Haiti. Organic pest control and pest management techniques are covered, along with several ways to kill powdery mildew on plants. For Example:
1.) If you plant garlic with tomatoes, it will keep away red spider mites.
2.) If you plant garlic around fruit trees, it will repel borers.
3.) Spray garlic pesticide on sweet potatoes to repel rabbits.
4.) Spray ponds with garlic-based oil to kill mosquitoes.
5.) An insect repellent spray made of tomato leaves
6.) Control Gardening Pest With Insecticidal Soap
7.) Onion and Mint as bug repellent, flea-beetle repellents.
1.) If you plant garlic with tomatoes, it will keep away red spider mites.
2.) If you plant garlic around fruit trees, it will repel borers.
3.) Spray garlic pesticide on sweet potatoes to repel rabbits.
4.) Spray ponds with garlic-based oil to kill mosquitoes.
5.) An insect repellent spray made of tomato leaves
6.) Control Gardening Pest With Insecticidal Soap
7.) Onion and Mint as bug repellent, flea-beetle repellents.
Irrigation
One major challenge with farming in Haiti is that one needs reliable access the water. A solar powered drip irrigation gardens can grow high value fruits and leafy green vegetables as has been demonstrated in Niger, Senegal and other parts of the Sahel region of Africa. Such a gardens would be more affordable, sustainable, and cheaper over time than diesel pumped water. So exactly how does solar drip irrigation work? A river runs past one village where a solar electric system pumps water to an elevated reservoir tank. The tank uses gravity to water the crops. In the other village, which is not near a stream, water is being pumped to the fields from a borehole at a depth of 35 meters. About 20 percent of the crops are consumed by the women’s families, but the rest of the tomatoes, okra, peppers, corn, moringa, cabbage and lettuce, as well as other fruits and vegetables, are sold at the markets for income.” Women participating in the Solar Market Garden pilots are able to spend this extra time in the gardens engaged in more income generating activities.
Credit & Micro-Finance
Haiti’s has a large need for more alternative banks for the organized poor. Fonkoze is an example of such as the largest micro-finance institution offering a full range of financial services to the rural-based poor in Haiti. Such banks must be committed to the economic and social improvement of the people and communities of Haiti and to the reduction of poverty in the country. Providing such loans during planting season and playing an active role in the development of the community these banks operate in in key.
Seed & Feed
Gathering seed and proper seed storing and banking practices need to be shared with many rural farmers. These simple techniques would ensure that an investment made this year should not need to be reinvested every following year. A similar challenge is the knowledge of various alternative crops that benefit the farmers livestock as well as the soil. While free range livestock has many advantages - the animals can only find what is available to them. Farmers must be educated on the value to cultivate and encourage the growth of feed grasses many of which could be grown in areas that do not compete with food producing lands, such as steep mountain sides or extremely rocky or arid soils.
Markets
After growing much needed food, no access to transportation reduces the marketable value of food stocks grown in rural area. While there are local markets. Many in the immediate area are much like the farmer who produced the foods - too poor to afford them. I have personally observed families buying carrots in singles or halves or quarters of a head of cabbage, simply because it was too expensive.
This creates a challenge to the farmer who has made huge sacrifices to produce a product that is much needed in a food insecure and undernourished country but that lacks the infrustratcture to deliver this perishable product everywhere its needed in a timely fashion before it spoils.
This creates a challenge to the farmer who has made huge sacrifices to produce a product that is much needed in a food insecure and undernourished country but that lacks the infrustratcture to deliver this perishable product everywhere its needed in a timely fashion before it spoils.
The challenges facing Haitian farmers are varied and while seemingly insurmountable for them, would require but some basic intervention. - Farm Haiti is looking for solutions to the challenges these farmers face.
