Haiti: Replanting after Hurricane Matthew

As organizations are responding to Hurricane Matthew damage in Haiti and in other parts of the Caribbean, they are developing short, medium, and long term plans of how to respond.  With much of the damage in Haiti occurring in rural communities, organizations are considering how to respond with seeds and trees so to help the agriculture sector rebound.  In agriculture there are crops that produce in the short term (various vegetables, beans, etc.), medium term (bananas/plantains, yams, cassava, etc.) and long term (fruit/forestry trees) that can be part of the response planning.  How to properly respond will depend on various factors such as access to land, available seeds/seedlings, time of year, available water (irrigation or rain fed), soil salinity (often an issue after storm events near the ocean), and cultural preferences.

ECHO has created a document of possible short season crops that have done well in various parts of Haiti or have potential to do quite well. [ Download PDF ]

ECHO has many of these suggested short season crops in our seed bank. ECHO provides small trial packets of seed to those working on behalf of the poor in developing countries.  Active development workers who are members of ECHOcommunity may request up to 10 seed packets per year at no charge. Qualified individuals can register for a no-cost membership. If you do not qualify as an "Active Development Worker" seed services are offered through our "Individual Premium" membership at a nominal cost.

Many of these suggested crops can also be requested from the nonprofit organizations such as ECHO, from local Haiti agriculture stores or US based seed companies. 

Two organizations ECHO recommends for bulk seed orders are:

Hope Seeds is a non-profit organization with a mission of providing quality garden seed to the hungry and hurting of our world, and teaching good gardening practices toward a more sustainable solution to world hunger.

Seed Program International mission is to provide good quality seed, expertise, and training materials to humanitarian organizations working around the world to alleviate hunger and poverty.