PLANTING TREES IN HAITI

Transcription

1 PLANTING TREES IN HAITI With the Smallholder Farmers Alliance Sponsored by:

2 The Smallholder Farmers Alliance works with small-scale farmers in Haiti to help restore tree cover and increase food production by establishing self-financing agroforestry cooperatives. February 2013

3 Gonaives 1 We operate in the rural area northwest of the Haitian city of Gonaives, with plans to expand to the Central Plateau ( centre on the map) area by mid-2013.

4 & Planting trees. Improving crops. 2 We have two main activities: our farmer members grow and plant trees in exchange for an agricultural training service that helps improve their crop yields up to 50 percent, depending on the crop.

5 We currently plant one million trees a year in Haiti. 3 This photo essay tells the story of just one of these activities planting trees.

6 4 Rigaud Joseph is typical of small-scale farmers in Haiti, shown here with four of his five children. They live near the rural community of Rofilie, and Rigaud has been a member of SFA since 2010.

7 5 This is the main nursery in Mapou, near Gonaives. There are seven additional smaller nurseries spread out within a twenty-square-mile area.

8 6 All eight nurseries are managed by the farmers, shown here preparing a seed bed.

9 7 Here the farmers are planting tree seeds in one of the nurseries.

10 8 Farmers tend the tree seedlings as they sprout.

11 9 Compost-enriched soil is put into plastic bags in preparation for transferring the tree seedlings when they are a few months old.

12 10 Tree seedlings are grown in beds protected by palm leaves (above right) before being transferred to plastic bags to continue growing.

13 11 The farmer members of SFA tending the main nursery in Mapou, which produces 500,000 trees a year.

14 12 Here SFA farmers are tending one of the seven smaller nurseries, each of which produces around 70,000 trees a year.

15 13 During peak work periods at the tree nurseries, farmers are given a hot meal at lunch time.

16 14 The reason there are eight nurseries is that they need to be close enough to the farms that the trees can be transported by wheelbarrow when it is time to plant them.

17 15 There are many ways in which the trees get planted once they have left the nurseries. Here farmers are preparing to plant trees in a field used to grow vegetables.

18 16 These farmers are planting trees to create a living fence that will protect their field from wandering livestock.

19 17 When it is time to plant trees, the whole family gets involved and not just the farmers.

20 18 SFA conducts regular environmental education classes for the children of farmer members so they will grow up appreciating the importance of planting and protecting trees.

21 19 This farmer is planting a tree as part of a program to restore community-owned land that is currently not able to grow crops.

22 20 This is community-owned land on which farmers have planted trees in an effort to restore it for future agricultural use.

23 21 It is very popular for trees to be planted by SFA members next to their house. Shown here is a papaya tree.

24 22 The agroforestry nature of the operation (trees and crops on the same land) is illustrated here, with a line of papaya trees (in the foreground) growing in the middle of a field of beets.

25 23 This farmer is growing the Cedrela odorata tree, known by its common name sèd in Creole. She will be able to harvest the trees in another two years to sell as timber, and they will then grow back from the root.

26 24 Here is a mixture of sèd and papaya trees planted in a bean field.

27 25 This image shows Jatropha curcas, or gwo medsiyen, planted as a living fence to both protect a field of corn from wandering livestock and establish a fixed boundary with the adjoining field.

28 26 This shows a mixture of trees planted for timber and fruit in the yard of a farmhouse.

29 27 There are times the farmers need to provide extra protection to young trees to protect them from goats and other wandering livestock.

30 28 Trees are also planted in pasture land in order to provide fodder for livestock such as this donkey.

31 29 This farmer is showing off her field of trees that will shortly be under-planted with beans.

32 Latin name: Common name in Creole: Use: Delonix regia Columbrina aborescens Cedrela odorata Catalpa longissima Carica papaya Citrus sinensis Jatropha curcas Moringa oleifera Persea americana Swietenya macrophylla Flambwayan Kapab Sèd Chèn Papay Oranj Jatrofa / Gwo medsiyen Doliv / Benzoliv Zaboka Akajou timber / fodder / living fence timber / fuelwood timber / reforestation timber / reforestation fruit fruit living fence food / fodder / living fence fruit timber / fuelwood This list includes the trees that are most commonly grown by the members of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance in Haiti, although additional species are also grown in smaller quantities.

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