OAKLAHOMA – Haiti continues to slide further into instability and poverty. In a country that’s known coups, earthquakes, repression and more, Haitians may be facing the worst crisis yet.
But there are solutions to Haiti’s endemic challenges. There are ways to help ensure families in rural areas have the basic food they need—and even surplus to sell to neighbors.
One method is fishponds.
Here’s how it works–
Farmers dig large ponds and line them with plastic. Into the ponds are put tilapia and other fish. Some of the ponds hold 1,000 fish.
Ponds are filled and replenished from tanks that store captured rainwater. To keep the pond water clean, it is periodically pumped from a pond. Pumps are solar powered. The pumped water, which contains nutrients from fish waste, is used in drip irrigation systems to water multiple crops, including kale. The inedible parts of the vegetables, as well as most kitchen food waste, are in turn used as fish feed. This use of family food waste to feed fish ensures that fish are fed and lowers production costs and raises profits.
It is a low-cost, seamless, sustainable and scalable system that provides more than enough vegetables and fish for a farm family. Surplus is sold in local markets. Profits are invested in a collective savings and credit program that provides working capital for additional fishponds, pumps, rainwater storage tanks, etc.
World Neighbors is the international development group that provides the training and support for this project in Haitian villages. It’s helping often isolated families achieve food security in very difficult conditions.
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