ORE is committed to providing Haitian farmers with quality, high performance seeds adapted to local farming conditions. Priorities are high-yield quality protein maize (QPM) and iron rich beans.
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ORE is committed to providing Haitian farmers with quality, high performance seeds adapted to local farming conditions. Priorities are high-yield quality protein maize (QPM) and iron rich beans. |
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Improved
Seeds Vegetable & Tuber Crops
PROGRAM GOALS |
 Improved seed production. Currently the majority of farmers are planting food grains bought in the market and crop yields are at subsistence levels. Improved seeds, selected for local conditions, offer farmers a better chance to harvest lucrative crops. The program is working with both newly developed hybrid and open-pollinated varieties of corn, selected black bean varieties, sorghum and pigeon peas. ORE has set up a seed processing facility in Camp Perrin where we produce approximately three hundred tons of commercial seeds a year, using material from our ongoing seed research and improvement program. The benefits are increased yields, higher income and improved nutrition.
Selecting and improving seeds for local conditions:
ORE's program is designed to offer Haitian farmers quality, high performance
seeds that are adapted to local conditions. Seed production is based on
selecting and improving local seed material and maintaining international
varieties adapted to local conditions. The program is also working on
multiplying corn and beans that have improved nutritional value. (Click
here to see more about this nutritional improvement) For over
a decade, ORE has been systematically collecting and maintaining material
originally introduced by international centers and selecting and improving
promising local varieties of corn, beans and sorghum. The key element
of the program is based on taking a realistic approach to the adverse
conditions in which the majority of Haitians are forced to farm: that
is low soil fertility, diseases and lack of irrigation. Imported hybrid
seeds deliver high yields under good conditions. But for Haiti's poor
soils, the rain-fed agricultural conditions and the general lack of fertilizers,
it is necessary to adapt the more hardy local varieties and increase their
performance.
Staple
crops such as corn, beans and sorghum, comprise nearly 80% of land use in Haiti: Improved seeds are essential
to increase the yields of Haiti's major staple food crops
Economic benefits of improved seeds Training
activities for seed production
has developed and operated fruit tree grafting and crop improvement programs in rural Haiti. During those years several international agencies have generously provided the funding that made it possible to maintain continuity of our development projects. These include USAID, the European Union, the Canadian Embassy, Inter-American Development Bank and other contributors. Top of Page | Home
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Studies
made by SISA-USAID in 1995 show that 80% of the 1,341,497 hectares currently farmed
in Haiti's are planted with three staple crops: corn (45%), beans
(25%) and sorghum (10%). However the yields are among the lowest recorded
in the hemisphere. Statistics from and FAO and the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture
show that less than 7% of the national seed requirements are supplied.
Currently the majority of farmers have little or no access to improved seeds and
are planting food grains bought in the market. As a result crop yields are at
subsistence levels. Such grains have low germination rates, (often around 30%),
and have neither been selected for high performance nor resistance to heat, drought
or disease. As a result, the financial returns to the farmers are rarely above
subsistence farming levels. Yet there is a permanent demand on the local market
for staple crops such as sorghum, corn and beans, which form the basis of the
farming system. 
