Green Farming Initiatives
Haitian farmers face many challenges - a lack of access to farm machinery, limited arable land (exacerbated by continued soil erosion and deforestation), terrain that is more mountanous than Switzerland, and an inadequate agricultural support infrastructure.
TractorShare supports the growth of the agricultural infrastructure from the grassroots level, starting with farming cooperatives and rural communities.
Green Farming initiatives can actually improve productivity while sustaining the land. We can protect topsoil by encouraging no-till farming while providing training on effective land management; partner with farmers for the planting of harvest trees (coffee, mango, and avocado) in barren areas not considered suitable for traditional farming (cash crop trees discourage cutting because they represent several years of potential revenue to the farmer); and improve water management by maintaining and upgrading the existing irrigation infrastructure. These three areas alone - protecting topsoil, planting trees, and effectively managing water resources - will have an immediate impact on the productivity of farmers while also protecting Haiti's valuable land resources.
[photo of Cap Haitien courtesy Creative Commons]
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
Comment:
"The painful fact is that population growth has far outstripped Haiti's ability to feed itself, and getting worse as agricultural production simultaneously and sharply declines. Cheap, subsidized imported foods (until very recently) has exacerbated that decline as farmers could not compete on the marketplace for staples and quit farming. Deforestation and devastating storms compounded the problem. Sadly, it was not always so as Haiti once produced as much as 80% of its own food.
Reversing this downward food production trend, especially now that costs of foreign imports are higher, can happen by introducing mechanization to farming communities. A single tractor leased to a community can increase production for scores of farmers by several multiples, thus enabling them to be competitive as well as far more productive. In a country experiencing so much severe malnutrition that often leads to early death or permanent disability among children, simple measures to make much more indigenously food available at lower prices can have a huge impact relative to cost. Moreover, providing an incentive to farm available land with higher yields can also have the effect of reversing the massive migration trend to the cities and the attendant problems of unemployment, crime, and dislocation. If there is anything I have learned from years of traveling to Haiti, it is that it doesn't take a whole lot to make a significant difference when properly targeted."
Ben
The painful fact is that population growth has far outstripped Haiti's ability to feed itself, and getting worse as agricultural production simultaneously and sharply declines. Cheap, subsidized imported foods (until very recently) has exacerbated that decline as farmers could not compete on the marketplace for staples and quit farming. Deforestation and devastating storms compounded the problem. Sadly, it was not always so as Haiti once produced as much as 80% of its own food.
Reversing this downward food production trend, especially now that costs of foreign imports are higher, can happen by introducing mechanization to farming communities. A single tractor leased to a community can increase production for scores of farmers by several multiples, thus enabling them to be competitive as well as far more productive. In a country experiencing so much severe malnutrition that often leads to early death or permanent disability among children, simple measures to make much more indigenously food available at lower prices can have a huge impact relative to cost. Moreover, providing an incentive to farm available land with higher yields can also have the effect of reversing the massive migration trend to the cities and the attendant problems of unemployment, crime, and dislocation. If there is anything I have learned from years of traveling to Haiti, it is that it doesn't take a whole lot to make a significant difference when properly targeted.
Ben
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