"Sweet" News from Our Experimental Farm!

Here at SOIL we rely on numbers - we count, weigh, or track just about everything possible. And while we need all of that information to ensure smooth operations (after all, when you're handling 75,000 gallons of poop a year, you better be sure you've got enough buckets), every so often, numbers make us downright giddy. Take the recent data from our experimental garden at Pernier, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. At the garden, our Agriculture team divides each crop into equal plots, each plot receiving a different amount of SOIL's EcoSan compost. These plots provide SOIL with valuable information on the impact of our compost - as well as plenty of delicious produce that our employees purchase fresh from the farm! We recently finished harvesting sweet peppers and analyzing the yields from each plot. While we plan to do additional studies to replicate our results, the initial results were truly astounding!  

Molly and Jean-Marie holding peppers from plants grown without SOIL's compost (L) and with compost (R). 

Taking into account the cost of the compost and the potential revenue generated by selling the peppers, the data show that applying SOIL compost could indeed increase a farmer's profits - by over $5,000 per hectare. Given that the average Haitian farmer makes one to two hundred dollars per year, an increase of that magnitude could truly be life-changing. SOIL is working to help Haitian farmers improve their livelihoods and grow nutritious, organic produce - all while adding health and fertility back to the soil. That is pretty sweet indeed!