Plantains are an important food and cash crop in Haiti. Most people eat them every day, so the farmers that produce them have a ready source of food for their families and cash to pay their bills.
Plantains grow up from sprouts and reproduce quickly. A mature plant will produce multiple offspring. Most plantain trees reach a height of about 9 feet, and with their wide leaves provide shade for other plants, such as papaya or cacao. Mature plants produce fruit only once. They are frequently removed after they produce fruit, to make room for their offspring, and to use for fiber, compost or roofing.
Last year our partners at the Grepen Center in Haiti initiated a program to cultivate plantain sprouts and provide them at below market rates to local farmers, in order to increase local plantain production as well as provide a steady income for the Grepen Center. They plan to provide 210,000 plantain seedlings over 3 years. We are now in year 2. Although plantains are central to the Haitian diet, healthy plantain sprouts were not previously available for sale and distribution in Gros Morne.
The security conditions in Haiti gave this program a slower start than hoped, but now our partners are reporting great success from the first year and excitement to expand to provide plantain plantlets to more farmers.
Watch a video from our partners titled “Plantain project at Grepen Center. We are starting to find the results we are looking for.”
Our work improves food security and household income in rural Haiti. Your support makes it all happen!
Thank you.
