Help Families Grow their Own Food in Rural Haiti

If I were to note major changes as I walked through Haiti and met with rural farmers, it would have been the number of topping bags of rice in the market place with a foreign language written on them and the local rice of L'estere the heart of the rice production  in Haiti, where the open bins of rice are laid in the sun and the farmers complain of how it is difficult to move their products. Yet, the discussion rages on about the insecurity of the food production. We are doing our utmost in our capacity to keep the local food production going strong.  Sustainable projects like the Center for Plaintain Propagation (CPP) have nearly eliminated Sigatoka, a chronic disease destroying a major staple in the Haitian diet mainly grown in the Artibonite Region.

The Center for Plantain Propagation (CPP) was created by the Lambi Fund of Haiti in 2008 as a direct response to the spread of sigatoka in the Gwomon region of Latibonit Department in northern Haiti. A leaf spot disease of bananas, sigatoka interferes with plant photosynthesis, reducing yields by 50% or more. Because plantains are a staple product for many Haitians, sigatoka represents a very real threat to food security for a population whose median income is less than $2 per day. With the recognition that solutions to the challenges of food security and basic human development must arise from within, and be owned by, local populations, the Lambi Fund of Haiti has always pursued a strategy of local control wherein grassroots organizations approach Lambi with their projects to which the Lambi Fund brings the necessary resources including financing and training. Because the spread of Black Sigatoka represents a threat to food security for all Haitians, the Lambi Fund of Haiti was forced to adopt a very different approach.

. The goals were as follows:

1: Propagate dissemination of sigatoka-resistant plantains throughout the Gwomon region of Haiti by growing and selling FHIA 21 plantain seedlings and through training of area farmers in the plantain decortication process.

At the end of 2013, the Lambi Fund of Haiti hired InfoDev, a well-established evaluation firm located in Port au Prince, to conduct a comprehensive review of the impact of the first five years of the CPP, and to make recommendations regarding its future direction. In the areas directly impacted by the CPP, the study determined that the land under cultivation with FHIA 21, sigatoka resistant strains of plantains, had increased from 200 hectares to more than 900 hectares. Furthermore, whereas only 25% of the plantains grown in the Gwomon region in 2007, when the CPP was first being considered, were sigatoka-resistant, by 2013, the percentage of FHIA-21 variety plantains had grown to more than 60%.

In addition to the conferred advantage of being sigatoka resistant, the FHIA-21 variety of plantain typically produces up to two additional clusters per plant, significantly increasing the productivity of the average plantain “tree.” A side benefit, then, of the introduce of the FHIA-21 variety of plantain has been to increase overall plantain production and profits to area farmers, while creating new commercial opportunities for area farmers.

With training and technical assistance from the CPP, area farmers have established a facility to produce plantain chips for sale to area orphanages and schools. This has not only provided additional revenue to area farmers, but has improved the diet of area school children who had, heretofore, relied on simple, sugar-based snacks/candies to sustain them during the long school day.

2: Provide training to area farmers on the use of natural, organic pesticides to control pests and plant disease.

While sigatoka represents a more prominent threat to the food security of Haitians, ordinary pests can significantly reduce yields of not only plantains but other crops as well. The CPP has trained area farmers in the use of local products, including hot peppers and sour orange, as well as other local products that may serve as natural pesticides and to help to eliminate other vermin. In 2013, the CPP provided six different types of trainings to some 543 individuals on both decortication as well as organic pesticide treatment. They were also taught how to reduce transmission of plant diseases and pests by, for example, cleaning shoes before entering into their fields. Trainings were also offered in the areas of forestry, nursery prep and management, and the preparation and formation of cooperatives for development. 

The following organizations and their membership received training in 2013.

Organization                                                                                 Membership           Women            Men           

AGPGM: Asosyasyon Gwoupman Plantè Gwomon                                 200                        60                 140

APS: Asosyasyon Peyizan Sel                                                             180                         69                111    

APMA: Asosyasyon Plantè Mannyok Akil                                              163                         77                 56     

Total                                                                                                   543                        217               296

 CPP undergirds local food production and continues to support the food production making available 6000 new plantain trees thus far in 2014, with a potential of doubling this production by end of December. 

Our donors have together supported this effort and we are forever grateful!