The agricultural sector in Haiti is a primary industry, employing approximately 60 percent of the rural population. The sector represents about 26 percent of the Haitian economy, making agriculture the largest employer in the country. Haiti has a limited amount of land capable of being cultivated, and the actual use of purchased inputs, such as fertilizers and machinery, by the farming community is minimal. Farmers in Haiti employ traditional agricultural practices, using increased amounts of chemical fertilizers since the 1970s. However, only large-scale farmers are able to access these inputs due to the high acquisition costs. Farming is largely subsistence in nature, labor-intensive, and farmers employ a mix of farming techniques.
The current practices are insufficient to sustain the population, make significant contributions to gross domestic product (GDP), and maintain soil quality for future generations. Attempts to increase the productivity of cultivable land areas have not emerged in a sustainable manner, and a formal organic fertilizer industry is nonexistent in Haiti. The USAID Feed the Future-West/WINNER project aims to improve targeted agricultural value chains in the Cul-de-Sac and Matheux corridors, seeking to help farmers acquire the resources and capacity necessary to become more productive and generate higher incomes in a sustainable manner.
Development of an organic fertilizer industry would potentially offer a sustainable solution to the wider Haitian farming community, as it would protect and improve soil structure and fertility while expanding agricultural production. Local production of organic fertilizer would increase accessibility for Haitian farmers by lowering costs and increasing availability. This report is a preliminary assessment of the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of an organic fertilizer plant that would use organic wastes as raw materials to create organic fertilizer.
Organic fertilizer use has been widespread in Jamaica since 1985, where it is produced using the wind row composting system. Raw materials are sourced in Spanish Town, processed at the plant in Kitson Town, and distributed island-wide. The introduction of this input to the Jamaican agricultural sector led to marked results, with crop yields increasing by as much as 30 percent following the application of three metric tons of organic fertilizer per acre. Success depends on creating a shift from the use of conventional synthetic material to the application of processed organic waste to fertilize crops.
Traditional agricultural practices in Haiti result in excessive leaching of the soil, and organic fertilizer is capable of restoring lost fertility to the soil and boosting crop production. Chicken manure and organic waste – the source material required to establish the industry – is readily available from the market place and poultry farms in close proximity to the proposed plant site. The use of readily available raw materials, produced at a lower cost and accessible to both large and small farmers, is crucial to the sustainability of this industry.
The proposed site for the plant, Beudet, boasts an established transportation network with limited congestion in the city center. It is situated in close proximity to the supply of raw materials for fertilizer production. The plant size proposed is approximately 6 hectares, which would provide adequate space for storage of both raw materials and finished product. This study concludes that an indoor composting pit (approximately US$250,000) offers the best value for investment. An indoor composting pit – a combination of the indoor windrow and pit composting system – produces high levels of output, and the investment in this equipment would be recouped within five years.
By the end of the second year of operation, profit of the plant is projected to be in excess of US$1.8M. This projection is based on the assumptions that 1,800 metric tons (MT) of fertilizer are produced and are sold at a market price of US$1,000/MT – comparable to the price of subsidized, imported inorganic fertilizer. The study examines the potential for utilizing wastes that would normally be seen as pollutants to instead advance the agricultural landscape and the lives of the Haitian people.