Monday, April 9, 2012

ARTICLE - GROWING MORE WITH LESS

GROWING MORE WITH LESS IN HAITI
(USAID) - By Susan DeCamp

A U.S.-Haitian agricultural growth strategy based on conservation and smart technique is already boosting incomes in the battered nation.

Making the most of limited resources is a driving concern of Haitian farmers, yet Wilhem Emile, one of USAID’s beneficiary farmers, counts himself a lucky man. As a plantain grower in the seaside town of Arcahaie, with just a half-hectare of land, he earns approximately $5,000 annually. That is 10 times the annual income of the average farmer with the same amount of land.

It is difficult to write anything about Haiti that does not start with the January 2010 earthquake, which is a defining, tragic moment in the country’s recent history. However, USAID’s current agricultural focus has been ongoing since 2009, most recently through the U.S. Government’s flagship global food-security initiative, Feed the Future. This foundation enabled the agriculture team to retool, redesign, and ramp up to provide urgently needed resources to farming families immediately following the life-altering tremblement de terre.

Projects—such as irrigation-system rehabilitation—that provided short-term jobs through cash-for-work initially took precedence. But in the months immediately following the earthquake, Haiti has moved from recovery to development, helped along by a suite of integrated, USAID-sponsored programs designed to boost the country’s agricultural capabilities for the long term.

USAID reforms in science and technology have been integrated into the effort through a partnership with the University of Florida. The efforts are bearing fruit: Improved yields in vegetables and other crops are contributing to significant increases in the incomes of paysans, the farmers of Haiti.

In looking at modern Haiti, agriculture’s role in the economy has declined significantly since the 1950s, when the sector employed 80 percent of the labor force and represented 50 percent of the gross domestic product. Today, agriculture forms 60 percent of the labor force and just 25 percent of the GDP. A combination of factors, notably the legacies of political instability and economic sanctions, as well as rapid population growth, has resulted in a continuing decline in food security.

The election of President Michel Martelly in 2011 infused the Government of Haiti with new leadership, energy, and enthusiasm for engaging with the international community on long-term rebuilding efforts. Cheryl Mills, counselor and chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has emphasized U.S. determination to support the development of the agriculture sector under a coordinated plan led by the Government of Haiti.

In a meeting at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters shortly after the earthquake, Mills stated that “the U.S. global hunger and food-security initiative—Feed the Future—embraces this challenge, calling upon development partners to invest in country-led plans that provide a comprehensive approach to substantially and sustainably reduce hunger and poverty.”

Income in Conservation

Haiti’s mountainous terrain suffers from efforts to increase agricultural production by pushing annual crops up steep slopes, resulting in deforestation, flooding, erosion, and damage to the more productive plains regions downstream. To curtail the damaging effects, Feed the Future makes targeted investments in deforested and eroded hillsides that also protect the investments in productive agricultural plains.

James Woolley, the contracting officer’s representative for the Feed the Future initiative in Haiti, notes that the program facilitates the planting of high-value, income-boosting tree crops—such as cocoa and mango trees—that can also stabilize hillsides with their roots: a win-win for both farmers and the environment. Farmers are also taught conservation and better technique.

As a result, more than 10,000 hectares of land came under improved natural resource management, and over 10,000 Haitians were trained in soil conservation, agroforestry (which benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock) and the use of hedgerows along slope contour lines. As perhaps the main testament to the program’s success, damage by November 2010’s tropical storm Tomas in the USAID zones of intervention was mitigated, while other areas were not so lucky.

Lewis Tatem, the head of USAID’s economic growth and agricultural development team in Haiti, points out that Feed the Future’s agricultural activities have been exceptionally successful, resulting in an average 102-percent yield increase for sorghum, 338-percent increase for corn, 97-percent increase in beans, and a 21-percent increase in plantain production.

Using the newly introduced System of Rice Intensification—which uses less water, fewer seeds, and less fertilizer—rice yields for USAID-assisted farmers increased by 64 percent in the last two years, while national figures show a decline of 17 percent due to a prolonged dry season. In addition, post-harvest methodologies for specific crops, such as plantains, have reduced losses due to damage during transport, providing additional increases in smallholder farmers’ income.

Centers for Excellence

“I learned new techniques that helped me increase my income, without the need to acquire more land.”

In partnership with the Government of Haiti, USAID built five research and training centers, known by their Haitian acronym, CRDDs (see sidebar), to modernize Haiti’s agricultural sector. The centers provide research-based agriculture techniques and ways to address plant and pest issues.

The primary center in Bas Boen, near Port-au-Prince, is a five-hectare campus with three laboratories, demonstration plots, and ongoing projects. Through satellite technology, the University of Florida provides expertise from U.S. agronomists. While the Bas Boen center maintains a dormitory for nationwide participants, the other four centers are regionally focused.

One of the innovations pioneered through the Bas Boen CRDD was a donkey pack frame for transporting mangos and fragile crops to markets. Two prototype designs were fabricated at the university machine shop and field tested.

Initially, public and private sector partners will manage the CRDDs, including USAID, the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture, the National School of Agronomy, local farmer associations, and representatives from Haitian agribusinesses. In the next few years, the U.S. Government will transfer full management responsibilities to Haitian institutions.

“Our support will help train thousands of farmers over the next few years,” said USAID/Haiti Mission Director Carleene H. Dei. “Through these centers and the University of Florida, Haitian institutions will gain the knowledge and experience to manage the center without our assistance.”

Wilhem Emile is just one of nearly 10,000 Haitian farmers currently working with USAID to improve revenues and food security while repairing watersheds. He knows that his hard work is the critical component. “I learned new techniques that helped me increase my income, without the need to acquire more land,” said the plantain farmer.

By 2014, USAID intends to double the income of 100,000 rural households like Emile’s. The Agency’s Feed the Future project in Haiti expects an estimated $80 million in increased revenues through plantain production alone by 2014. When it comes to doing more with less, Haitian farmers are right there, leading the way.

Feeding the Future in Haiti

The U.S. Government’s flagship food-security program, Feed the Future, takes a multi-faceted approach that weds simple interventions and training to innovations in science and technology. Project activities are based on a landmark Environmental Vulnerability Assessment for Haiti, funded by USAID in 2007. Primary interventions include:

•Agricultural campaigns that provide technical and material support to many small farmers through farmer associations. These target a limited number of selected food crops. Farmers pay for their materials and for the use of tractors instead of hand labor for land preparation. The funds support farmers’ groups, which are increasingly self-sufficient.

•Centres Ruraux de Developpement Durable (CRDDs) are research and training centers developed in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, private entities, and farmer associations. The CRDDs benefit from the expertise provided by the University of Florida through visits and satellite communications technology. Each offers training, and each has a unique center of expertise such as plant pathology or a target crop such as mangoes.

•The Master Farmer program has graduated more than 700 farmers since 2009, enabling them to become proximity extension agents in their communities. They take four basic courses (agriculture, environment, management of small farms, family planning and nutrition) and two specialized courses that target the crops of that region. At the end of successful training, they are certified by the Ministry of Agriculture and return to their communities to train other farmers.

•Agro-forestry interventions that plant income-generating trees—such as cacao and mango—on eroded hillsides stabilize watersheds and protect those downstream from flooding.

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