“From one seed comes many . . .”

Today the Agricultural Training Center staff is excited to be planting two varieties of millet seed that were donated by Mike D. and his family and his school students who are interested in agricultural development in Haiti. Mike teaches sustainable agriculture in Galesburg, IL, and supports our ATC programs by often sending good new seeds for us to try.

These two varieties of millet will let us experiment with which variety will grow best in Haiti.  We want to use the millet crops for food for “free-range” chicken flocks in remote villages that need more animal protein in their diets.

Commercial chicken feed is too scarce and too expensive in Haiti, but if we can promote wild feed crops, such as this millet, mulberry trees, amaranth, and other “wild” seed-bearing plants, we may be able to support more free-range chickens in the remote villages. The pictures you see here are the ATC staff preparing the ground as they would for a vegetable crop.

Soon they will see another planting method that our friend, Farmer John Draxton, will use to rough up the ground as you would for a pasture seedbed, then broadcast the seeds.  We can see which method will produce a better crop for free-range chickens.  We want to keep the “first fruits” of the millet seed harvest for sewing next year’s crop, so the ATC beds may be better for that.

We thank Mike and his students for their interest in helping Haitians learn to help themselves.  Development for sustainability can break the cycle of poverty.  God bless you for helping “the least of these.”

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director