The Farm
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Our aim in the long term is for sustainability. A small farm has been established close to the compound at Hope House on previously barren rocky ground. We are very grateful to Love a Child organisation who held an agricultural training course and sponsored Yvrose, Pierre Richard and Ludmie (Hope House Haiti) to attend. They learnt agricultural techniques to help them grow their own food and provided skills to transfer the information to the schools, the community, and the mountains community beyond. The training covered all aspects of farming and horticulture, land management, animal welfare and breeding, insecticides, economics and business. As a result, skills have been learnt that will enable the farm to become a reality and to make much better use of the land around the house. The knowledge gained on the course has transformed the work being done
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The land is being prepared properly with compost, grit and chicken manure being mixed in and also a site for the beds has been chosen carefully to take advantage of shade available. Also a bed has been created on the school site next to the new classrooms, which will be used to teach the children how to grow vegetables. To date, Papaya, mangoes, sugar cane, chillies, and tomatoes have been grown to help provide food.
Aquaponics has been trialled on a small scale close to the house; a food production system that combines fish farming with crop production in a symbiotic environment. This will hopefully be rolled out across the farm in the future to enhance food production, once a sustainable water supply and electricity supply have been developed. |
Animals
An area of the farm has been set aside for live-stock, and Pierre Richard has trained as a chicken farmer. To date he has reared up to 1000 chickens at a time to provide eggs and to sell chickens to market. Their chickens have earned a good reputation at Market due to being corn fed, the feed being mixed by the older boys on the farm. Blue Ridge Community College in USA visited in February 2017 and taught 10 women the principles of good business management for selling eggs. Pierre Richard also trains other farmers on good chicken management. A new hen house has recently been built that can house up to 5000 chickens, but restocking the chicken farm is on hold whilst the current troubles in Haiti are ongoing. In addition other animals have been successfully trialled on the farm, but moving into full production is also on hold until a sustainable water supply and boundary security can be achieved:
- A small rabbit farm, which has been built but has still to be populated, as a source of meat.
- Cows, to provide milk for our children.
- Goats, that are bred to supply to other communities for income.
- Pigs, again for meat, and to be sold to other communities for income.
