Haitian Agronomists Visit Honduras CDA Program

Washington DC (December 10, 2002) - Seven agronomists from the USAID-funded Hillside Agricultural Program (HAP) in Haiti made a week-long study tour of the Fintrac managed CDA Program in Honduras last month. The purpose of the visit was to examine new production systems for a wide range of crops with applicability to Haitian growers.

Led by HAP Head Production Manager Joanas Gue and Fintrac's Postharvest and Marketing Advisor Jackie Boardman, the group made visits to highly productive small and medium-size farmers in several zones of the country. Cropping systems were examined for jalapeno pepper, cauliflower, lettuce, oriental vegetables, malanga, yuca, cucumber, mango and papaya. Participants were exposed to "calendarized" production systems that met local and export supermarket standards in terms of quality, quantity, consistency, and food safety. A number of growing techniques were demonstrated by Fintrac CDA field agronomists in each region with individual Honduran growers, including:

• Low-cost plantlet nurseries managed by small farmers using seedling trays;

• Contour and raised beds;

• Gravity-fed drip irrigation systems;

• Fertigation techniques for irrigation systems and nursery production;

• Integrated pest management systems, including the use of sticky traps for trapping and monitoring pests, the use of live crop barriers and preferred plants species to reduce insect infestation of crops;

• Preparation of malanga planting material;

• Maintenance of mango orchards to ensure smaller trees for easier harvests, and managed flower and fruit induction;

• Commercial production of Solo varieties of papaya;

• Improved breeding and management of banana crops, including non-chemical methods of minimizing rot developments in banana stems and hands (a system commonly used by commercial growers, but unknown in Haiti);

• Micropropagation of bananas to increase planting stocks (at FHIA);

• Visit to a pesticide residue analysis laboratory, with an explanation of how and why pesticdes residues are monitored in food crops.

According to Andy Medlicott, Fintrac CDA Director, "what left the biggest mark could be the market-led production approach which we have applied to producers of all sizes", and "drip irrigation, raised and contoured beds, small scale greenhouses, etc ... covering a wide range of clients, products and systems."

The Honduras trip was followed by visits to produce importers and supermarkets in Miami. Detailed discussions on commercialization and supply requirements were held, together with inspections of products sold by importers and supermarkets.

Fintrac is the prime contractor on the Honduras CDA Program, and is a subcontractor to DAI on the Haiti HAP Project.