Vegetable Gardens for Improved Nutrition in Haiti

Partners would first like to thank all our generous donors who have made this project possible! Your donations have provided supplies and trainings to families in Lory and we hope to keep bringing you good project updates that show the impact of your assistance.

Through collaboration with the Farmer to Farmer program, a team of organic agriculture specialists from Vermont recently traveled to provide training in integrated, sustainable farming. In Lory, they looked at improving practices in vegetable seedling production and transplanting, compost, and other areas.

An excerpt from their trip report is below: 

"The Lory community members that we worked with ... were very enthusiastic and had prepared raised beds with compost before we came. They were constrained by land availability, sun exposure, seed availability, and heavy soils with poor drainage. They valued the use of bagasse [the fibrous matter that remains after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice] based compost that Makouti has been producing and were extremely supportive of each other and eager to exchange ideas with us. Saintano [the village field technician] had good technical knowledge and seemed to gain confidence and comfort working with us over the course of the week." 

Based on their work and the trainings provided, some recommendations to further improve the gardens in Lory are:

• Clay soils with limited drainage are a problem so raised beds and as much compost as possible will help improve soil tilth and drainage. 
• Row cover should be used to cover beds until seedlings are able to withstand chicken damage.
• Continue compost workshops and additional pest management training is needed.
• Acquiring access to more and better land for the women’s group to work collectively as skill sets develop in vegetable production.

Training on these and other topics will help strenghten the impact of our work in Lory. Thank you again for your collaboration!