Haitian Farmers Increase Rice Production

Haitian farmers voice land degradation and the lack of access to appropriate technical practices, credit, and irrigation water as the key elements that hinder agricultural production increases. Meanwhile, the increase of national agricultural production is a critical strategy of the Government of Haiti (GoH) to improve livelihoods in rural areas and reduce the pressure experienced by Port au Prince and other urban areas. In order to support Haitian farmers and the GoH, the USAID WINNER project is training Haitian farmers on innovative techniques, such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), that allow them to significantly increase their yields per square meter.

“I first thought there was a problem with translation” admits farmer Brice Jean Berneau, now a big supporter of the SRI technique. He could not understand how using 80% less seed, 30% less water and less fertilizer, he would end up doubling his production. Berneau, a delegate of a 300-strong farmers association in Thomazeau, first tried the SRI technique last year on 20% of his land as he was skeptical. Now, he is using the SRI technique in his entire plot and producing TCS10 rice, a variety of rice made available by WINNER for its better market value.

WINNER trained 128 more farmers like Berneau on SRI during the 2010 agriculture campaign. They are all now taking full advantage of this rice production technique. By providing an optimum environment to the rice plant, SRI favors the expression of its potentiality which is the development of tillers. As SRI is also a flexible technique, its adjustment to different environments has proven to be a success in Haiti. The SRI campaign of 2010 involved an area of 300 hectares of land, and is expected to reach 700 hectares for the 2011 campaign based on estimates provided by farmer associations and requests for technical guidance addressed to WINNER’s regional offices.

In March of 2011 WINNER held an international conference on SRI in collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture and Cornell University that gathered experts and 43 delegates of farmers associations that represented more than 3,000 farmers. Many of them testified to the great results they obtained with SRI and advocated a wider use of the technique. Farmer Josaphat from the Artibonite region pointed out that any farmer will buy in this replicable system as even his “very stubborn father, who thought he knew everything, has switched to SRI.”