Urgent Focus: Haiti
Urgent Focus: Haiti
The Haitian people are suffering from a severe food crisis made even worse by widespread destruction from an unrelenting hurricane season. Numerous towns and cities have been devastated. Farmland and crops have been largely wiped out. In response to the ongoing tragedy, TractorShare is organizing a long-term program to help Haitian farmers clear fields, construct drainage, and replant crops. Our training and agricultural support programs will focus on both near-term relief as well as long-term development.
[All photos courtesy of USAID]
Photo Left: Gonaives, the third largest city in Haiti, has been flooded and buried in mud.
Photo Right: Haitian farmers have established cooperatives and markets, but their ability to produce is extremely limited without access to tractors, farm implements, and technical support - TractorShare and you can help!!!
Just writing to say I checked out the blog and think it's great. Look forward to adding comments.
Reply to this
Thank you for enlightening us about what is happening in Haiti and how Tractor Share can help farmers help themselves. We're 100% behind you!
Reply to this
I am just thrilled that TractorShare is taking this very unique and practical approach to dealing with fundamental development issues throughout the world. First stop: Haiti. Next stop: the world!!
You guys are quickly going to become one of my favorite worthy causes.
Reply to this
I have been actively supporting cost effective projects in northern Haiti for the past 15 years ranging from supplying fire fighting gear to local fire departments to organizing surgical team visits to small hospitals. In all cases the focus has been on maximizing value for dollars spent. When I was asked last year to join Tractorshare as Vice President, I readily accepted because it ascribes to the same philosophy: Get the most bang for the buck.
In the case of the surgical team, the cost was brought down to approximately $300 per operation (including hospital costs). That's about 1/50th of the cost in the US on average. TractorShare operates the same way--maximize efficiency exponentially. Indeed, a single tractor can till a field 20 times more efficiently than by hand and yield 20 times the yield. If that is multiplied 250 times over a year, we can expect to see an increase of food production around 5000 times over what was produced. In a country of 9-10 million people where hunger and malnutrition is endemic because of serious food shortages, this is obviously huge. That's why TractorShare is poised to play a major role in transforming Haitian agriculture and feeding thousands of people.
And what is the cost for alleviating hunger and preventing malnutrition for thousands over the next five years? About $15,000 per tractor. This covers acquisition plus transportation to Haiti plus local management. Operation and maintenance is paid through nominal leasing fees at or below cost. Once implemented, that will come to less than $3.00 per multiple of increase in production over the current non-mechanized method. This kind of bang for buck is hard if not impossible to beat. We have every reason to believe this will be the model for world-wide application to avert hunger, malnutrition, and starvation at the lowest cost. Please join us.
Ben
Reply to this