ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Households in rural Haiti suffer acute deprivation — dirt-floor houses, no water, no sanitation, no electricity, no fuel other than wood for cooking, and no assets. Families in these households must make impossible choices between the most basic of necessities. Our farm economic development program addresses this inhumane situation.
Its purpose is to improve Haiti’s farm economy. Our farm enterprise center, called JP, buys crops from small farms and makes them into marketable products, By joining value-added processing to family farms, we are developing a farm economy that gives families the means to earn decent livelihoods.
The products we make from local crops are jatropha oil-based bodycare products, cashews, honey, and others. They are marketed on JP’s website, JPhaiti.com and are sold from its store in Terrier Rouge, Haiti.
We also coach farmers in developing new cash crops; address the economic needs of women; and facilitate community cooperative efforts like operating a cassava mill.
Making products from local harvests adds market value and increases household incomes.
