The USAID Agroforestry Systems An Alternative to Meeting Haiti's Food, Fiber and Fuel Needs

Because of a high ratio of population to arable land, extensive cropping and grazing practices, and ever increasing demand for fuel and wood products, Haiti's once abundant forestry resources rapidly are disappearing. The country's current forest resources are unlikely to meet growing levels of demand beyond this century unless consumption and production trends are reversed. Concurrently, the removal of forest cover is causing serious erosion problems and reductions of agricultural productivity. The US Agency for International Development has mounted a program of agroforestry that emphasizes the rapid propagation and distribution of improved multipurpose tree crop species throughout Haiti to address these problems. The underlying premise of the program is that Haitian peasants will intercrop forest, fruit and food crops and indirectly address the problems of deforestation and erosion provided acceptable returns are foreseen from such practices. Through Technical and socioeconomic research, efficient nursery techniques, and extension through local organizations, the program has planted over 11 million rapidly maturing multipurpose hardwood and fruit tree seedlings on 20,000 small-farmer plots. Many farmers who participated early in the program, which commenced in the spring of 1981, are now harvesting hardwood species for lumber and/or fuel needs.