Fruit of HAFF's Agricultural Outreach Program Found in Local Market

Bananas and tangerines in the market.

In January, Carla and Colin Wilson wrote, “One of the nice surprises we had while taking our first friendship team of the year through the local market was that we recognized some tangerines similar to what we have at HAFF. Knowing that all the other local organizations only give out grafted trees of the sweet orange, we asked if these tangerines came from the first two-foot grafted citrus trees HAFF had given out up in the mountains five years ago.”

HAFF Farm manager Ely Mompremier grafts fruit trees using bud wood from trees brought in by ECHO staff and interns. HAFF Agricultural Extension agent Millius Hilaire shares knowledge and plant material with the 30+ farmer groups he works with in 20 communities around HAFF.

Millius says, “The first projects we did involved giving out fuel wood trees. But people would cut these down after a few years, so it did not really help much of the deforestation. Even when we give out lumber trees, people still steal them from others' gardens. But no one will cut down a fruit tree to use for making charcoal. People take the fruit off but always leave the tree so there will be more fruit the next year.”

Tangerines at HAFF. The source of the grafts.

“Most people don’t want to pay the 3 gourdes (about $0.07 US) a (nursery) sack that we ask, but everyone would take them if we give them away. But when we give things away, some people don’t take care of them. They abandon them when they need water and forget to protect them from animals. It takes a lot of awareness raising to get people to see the worth in paying three dollars ($0.35 US) for 5 trees. That three dollars will only buy a bar of soap but the fruit from five trees can buy so much more.”

In 2009, over 1000 grafted tangerine trees were given to about 200 families in Millius' farmer groups in 2 communities. Other years, grafted tangelo and sweet orange trees were also given. (See the HAFF Blog posts for August 9, 2010 for stories and photos of similar distributions.) Carla Wilson reported, “That year the rainy season did not last as long as usual and many people didn’t have a way to take water to their plants. The plants also have to escape the goats, cattle, horses and donkeys that get loose and eat anything tasty in sight.” But at least one family was able to keep their trees alive.

The Wilsons continued their January report on the tangerines from the market, “this was their first year to bear and though the drought had caused their fruits (like ours) to be smaller, the owners were well satisfied with them. What a blessing in a project where a percentage of the seedlings don't thrive in their two years at our nursery and then have to depend on the water-carrying will of their owners their first years and the uncertainties of God's gift of rain thereafter.”

Carla also reported, “We were in the market and saw some small bananas that are called “dessert bananas” in the US. I wondered if they were from HAFF so asked the woman selling them.” The bananas were indeed from a project that Millius did with ECHO staff later in the time ECHO worked with HAFF. Millius said, “Many other people let their bananas dry up or get eaten by animals, but she planted the banana by her house, put fertilizer on it, watered it and could always see that animals could not get to it since it was in her yard. . . But now they (the other people) see the value of her banana plant. For years now she has been giving people baby banana plants from it.”