Changing Lives in Haiti Through Agriculture.

Although the agriculture sector employs more than half of Haiti’s population and offers one of the only ways for people in rural communities to support themselves, the sector struggles to achieve consistently higher yields and sales. “Feed the Future Haiti Chanje Lavi Plantè,” which means “Changing Lives” in Haitian Creole, confronted this issue by increasing farmers’ access to irrigation water and better seeds, training master farmers as agricultural extension agents, and linking farmer associations with the market and financial institutions. A fundamental part of the project was equipping farmer associations and cooperatives to support farmers more effectively. The project also empowered women while training them to share information about gardening and nutrition with their communities. Other project activities were dedicated to increasing tree cover, plugging critical gullies, and promoting the growth of high-value cash crops in greenhouses to stabilize target hillsides and prevent erosion. The project gave Haitian farmers the building blocks they needed to respond to market demands and increase their incomes.