In rural Haiti, there is no local neighborhood Lowe’s or Tractor Supply Company (TSC) store to go buy commercial fertilizer, so they must learn to make their own organic fertilizers.

This week, Wilner has been teaching our 2-year Agroecology students about the importance of good soil nutrition and using “home-made” fertilizers.

We teach about using various organic wastes to make fertilizers, such as “tea” from Moringa leaves and other vegetation, worm castings (vermiculture), and composted animal manures from cattle, goats, rabbits, horses, and chickens.

This week, the students have been using high-potency, aged chicken manure. Wilner has found some local chicken farmers to buy their chicken waste (fimye) from when they rotate and clean out their chicken houses. This helps the chicken farmers get rid of their waste and even make a little more revenue.

Here you see the students learning to prepare pepper plants in the ground and eggplants in tire gardens for a “side dressing” of the chicken manure fertilizer. They freshen the dirt around the plants, put some fertilizer there, and then incorporate the fertilizer into the soil near the plant, above the root zone. A little water will begin to move the nutrients down into the roots for hardy, healthy plants, which will soon yield a nice harvest.

Aside from teaching new and better gardening skills, our Development for Sustainability outreaches give confidence, hope, and a sure path to a better life. When you support this work, you give a gift of food for a lifetime. God bless you.

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director