Cultivating Food Production with 2,000 Bags of Compost

Haiti’s local food systems have been hit hard by the worsening political and economic situation in Haiti, with ongoing challenges for farmers trying to get their food to markets, and for families facing devastating price increases. As a result, food scarcity has worsened in Haiti for some of the country’s most vulnerable communities. Though the underlying problems are complex and stem beyond degraded soils alone, the growing challenges for local farmers and families struggling to put food on the table is a strong reminder of the critical need to invest in efforts to increase local production.

By treating and transforming waste into organic agricultural-grade compost, SOIL’s teams continue to help cultivate local production while simultaneously restoring soil health, saving water, and supporting rural livelihood opportunities across Haiti – one bag of compost at a time.

One of SOIL’s long-time compost customers, the Caris Foundation, has been using SOIL’s lush compost since 2016 to support their agriculture projects in Haiti. Over the years they have purchased more than 2,000 bags of SOIL compost from our Cap-Haïtien composting facility. With it, they have improved the soil quality in gardens all across the country that are run by community members who grow, harvest and sell what they’ve produced.

Ismael Novembre started working for the organization as a technician agronomist and is now the coordinator of their gardening program. Read the interview with Ismael below to learn more about the impact that SOIL’s agriculture-grade compost is having in gardens all the way from the Artibonite river valley to Grand Anse to the capital city of Port-au-Prince!

Continued Use and Benefits of SOIL’s Compost

 “SOIL is an organization that produces an organic compost that we tested and found [to be of] good quality. We don’t need to look for another product anymore! We only support the organic agricultural system which is what the nature has offered us. Consequently, there will be no harmful effects on people’s health. All of our technicians report back to us of the good quality of the SOIL compost. The proof is in the [healthy] development [they’ve] observed in the plants. The quality of the product is what has kept us as a customer.” To learn more about the long-term benefits of SOIL compost application to increased harvests in Haiti, explore the research here.

Using Compost to Improve Health and Grow Food

“One of the biggest problems in the country is the fact that we use products that have secondary [harmful] effects on health, but SOIL came with this product that improves public health [and] strengthens the ecologic balance …. It is very important, it keeps the environment safe. The compost helps by preserving the soil health whereas the chemical products destroy the microorganisms. As a consequence, the presence of organic fertilizers helps in amending the soil. If there were more organizations that produce such fertilizers at a higher scale, more people would use it.”

We love hearing stories like this from our compost customers! At the end of the interview, Ismael also mentioned his hopes for SOIL. He said he hoped that SOIL would have success in producing and selling larger quantities of compost because it will help “Haiti to have less people consuming food products from other countries that are not good for [our] health.” We hope so too and we look forward to seeing how their newest garden in Port-au-Prince will flourish in the months to come!

 

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