GSF Agriculture Program updates
The GSF Agronomy Team remains busy as ever in recent months. In addition to continuing their constant work in the fields, we have very exciting recent news to share! The Herculean efforts of Anousse Paul and the other hardworking members of the Agronomy Team have finally paid off in the form of a working cassava mill. Cassava is a starchy root crop that grows well in Haiti, and has supported our agriculture program, not to mention other Haitian farmers, in difficult times. It is possible to convert this starchy root into a flour which can be stored for long periods and made into a delicious bread using cassava mill machinery. Of course, getting this machinery from the outside world to Ile A Vache where it can benefit the local community would be a challenging task in the best of times. With ongoing economic turbulence, unsafe cross-country travel conditions, and all the other typical logistical issues with purchasing and transporting, the team still managed to get all the necessary machinery and equipment brought to Ile A Vache and installed! The first cassava flour and peanut butter were made from harvests in GSF’s own agricultural fields, and served to the children in La Hatte school with local fruit juice also grown in the GSF fields. It was an exciting moment, and has great promise for the future.
The advantage of the cassava mill, in addition to creating a flour which can be made into appealing and versatile flatbread, is in its ability to easily store cassava harvests, which will improve food security for the school and the community. In addition, it is a technical resource we can offer other farmers on the island for a small fee, or, when our own demand for cassava flour is greater than the produce of our GSF fields, it offers economic support to the community as we can buy the cassava crops of other farmers on the island. Rice is usually the preferred starch in Haitian diets, but is much more difficult to grow and is usually imported. With the difficulties facing all kinds of transportation and importation to the country, the arrival of the working “cassaverie” (as it is called in French) is very timely. The GSF Agronomy Program continues to grow and develop into an independent, positive force in the community in its own right, supporting food security on the whole island, not only for the La Hatte school. Congratulations to Anousse and the team!
