“Priceless:” A Young Agronomist Tests SOIL Compost

Nitchenson Henry grew up in northwestern Haiti and now lives in Limonade, not far from SOIL’s composting site. He’s known what he wanted to do for a living for as long he can remember and is now proud to be working towards it as an agronomy student at a local university. Nitchenson’s hope is one that we share at SOIL: to find ways to restore soil health and agricultural productivity across Haiti.

During a visit to SOIL’s composting site in northern Haiti for one of his college courses, Nitchenson had a chance to learn about our ecological sanitation services and see first-hand how we treat and transform waste into a valuable soil amendment. He’s since become a regular compost customer, purchasing bags of Konpòs Lakay for his garden for more than a year now.

Nitchenson spearheaded a project early this spring with a local farmer where he decided to put SOIL’s compost to the test to demonstrate that harsh synthetic fertilizers aren’t necessary for growth. The farmer told Nitchenson that he didn’t believe this was true, but Nitchenson was determined to show him it was possible – and he did! “There’s a myth that you must use synthetic fertilizers” says Nitchenson, “but if people could see what you’re able to accomplish with the resources already available in nature… they wouldn’t use chemical fertilizers again.”

Nitchenson started the garden for his neighbor, the farmer, in early February, and just before June he had a robust and healthy harvest. The compost helped the garden tremendously, Nitchenson shared, reducing water usage while also replenishing nutrients in what was once depleted soil. When SOIL’s team asked him what drove him to purchase compost as we work to refine our approach to sales and marketing, his answer was a beautiful one. “Priceless” is how he described the product because of the enormous benefits that it has for the soil. He described it not just as a product, but as a service for the “environment at large”.

Nitchenson’s garden’s impressive growth has already inspired a few of his peers at the university to purchase some SOIL compost themselves, too! We’re proud to be transforming waste into a product that helps farmers and agronomists like Nitchenson grow abundant harvests and extend our gratitude to Nitchenson for advocating for the regenerative potential of organic compost!

To learn more about recent research that shows that SOIL’s natural compost outperforms its chemical counterparts, visit this page.

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Photo: Chris McMorrow for Momentum for Change