A group from LSU and Southern University visits the home of the leader of the local farmer cooperative in Cayes-Jacmel, Haiti. The visit was an assessment of the cooperative’s needs and future agricultural development activities. Photo by Carl Motsenbocker.

Carl Motsenbocker, with the LSU AgCenter, second from right at back, and Anna Claire Ferchaud, an LSU senior, Ann Savage, with the LSU AgCenter, and Mile Berhane, with Southern University, front row, from left, pose with students from Centre de Formation Fritz Lafontant, a school with Zamni Agrikol in Haiti. The four visited Haiti to explore opportunities for exchanges and collaborations. Photo provided by Carl Motsenbocker.

News Release Distributed 02/04/15

BATON ROUGE, La. – Carl Motsenbocker and a group from Louisiana State University and Southern University returned from Haiti in January with ideas on how to engage LSU students and the community in developing sustainable agriculture projects in the Caribbean country.

Motsenbocker, a horticulture professor in the LSU College of Agriculture, traveled to Haiti with Ann Savage, an LSU AgCenter sustainable agriculture extension associate, Mile Berhane, a research associate with Southern University, and Anna Claire Ferchaud, a College of Agriculture senior studying natural resource ecology and management. The group left Baton Rouge for Haiti on Jan. 1 and was there for 10 days.

Motsenbocker describes the trip as a sustainable agriculture excursion to look at the local food systems in Haiti, assess needs at three Haitian sites and work with collaborators to support agricultural development. The group was also exploring opportunities for student and faculty exchanges.

“One of my goals is to develop a sustainable agriculture and food systems class that I will teach in spring 2016, with an optional trip to Haiti during spring break,” Motsenbocker said.

Ferchaud considers herself an adventurous type. She enjoys camping and the outdoors and is president of the LSU Wildlife Society. But she admits she was apprehensive about the trip.

“I thought it would be my only time I’d ever go to Haiti because I wouldn’t want to go back. But I was completely wrong. The people were kinder and the country was more beautiful than I could have anticipated,” Ferchaud said.

The group started its visit in the mountainous region of Haiti near the coastal town of Jacmel in an area that has been heavily deforested. Motsenbocker said soil erosion and the hilly terrain make farming difficult, and people have little access to food or water during the dry season.

“We talked to one village leader in Cayes-Jacmel and discussed with the locals that farmed in the area what their needs and constraints are,” Motsenbocker said, adding that a future project in Haiti could be working with farmers on how to save seed.

“They also have difficulty obtaining good quality seed to grow crops,” he said.

The Southern University and LSU group visited villagers in three areas of the country to identify potential projects.

“One thing that struck me about the three places we visited was how community oriented all the people were," said Savage. “When looking at developing future projects with the sites, this sense of communities working together gives real hope for success in establishing a more secure food system.”

The group also visited Zamni Agrikol, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent malnutrition in children and to provide economic and food security in the Haitian Central Plateau.

There, Berhane and Motsenbocker presented lectures to Centre de Formation Fritz Lafontant agriculture students. They also worked with the students from the school and conducted a hands-on lab to plant vegetables using trickle irrigation and demonstrated a simple bucket irrigation kit.

“They were very excited about the bucket irrigation,” Ferchaud said. “It’s a simple technology that makes efficient water use. There is less labor involved, and they don’t over-water.”

Ferchaud said the system is essentially a 5-gallon bucket with irrigation tubing attached to it. The tubes are spread out across the fields. Water is placed in the bucket twice a day, and the tubes spread it out evenly across the fields.

Motsenbocker said the bucket irrigation kit only costs about $10, not including the bucket, which most farmers have. It can make a big difference to the farmer because labor is often a major cost or constraint in growing vegetables.

They also demonstrated the kit at Santé Total in Jacsonvile, which is the site of a health clinic co-founded by Gaby Thelus, a Virginia Tech agriculture graduate. The health clinic is supported by current and former Tulane medical students and physicians.

“There is a great interest in Jacsonvile in agriculture projects, in particular fruit and vegetable production because a lack of access to nutritious, healthy food is a major medical problem in the area,” Motsenbocker said.

The group’s interest in Haiti stems from the country’s connections to Louisiana and how close the two countries are geographically and historically. “They are our sister country,” Motsenbocker said, citing the French influence on both. “The town of Jacmel looks a lot like New Orleans.”

LSU has several projects in Haiti with multiple goals engaging faculty and students from various LSU colleges. “The project with the College of Agriculture is to collaborate with locals and provide the education and the tools that may be needed and to support their work in their communities,” he said.