Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

Given that connecting the two largest cities on the island if a logistical challenge, how do you connect two cities that are about 20 land miles away?  Pointe-a-Raquette would be a contender for a honeybee expansion, however the logistical nightmare prevents this from being a reality.  Pointe-a-Raquette could help add tremendous revenue to the cooperative and to the island of La Gonave due to location and due to the population size. Just looking at Pointe-a-Raquette it boasts a population of about 23,000 people, and has access to some of the best scenic beauty.  Many beautiful beaches line this side of the island and given that it faces the vast ocean, trash and debris is not as plentiful on the coastline.  So Point-a-Raquette can also serve as a perfect location for tourism.  Again, however, logistics is an issue. In previous posts I mentioned paved roadways connecting the two cities of Anse-a-Galets and Pointe-a-Raquette.  A commuter minibus line wou...

La Gonave Honeybee Project hive building will be an opportunity for local woodworkers to build the hives.  This will allow for local experience in building the hives, but also will lower overall costs of building the hives.  The hives will be built using plastic barrels but many aspects of the hive will still be wood, such as the top bars. There will also be the traditional wooden hive boxes as well, which will require 100% wood.  Based on market prices in Haiti for wood, these types of hives may not be on a large scale production.  Still we hope to start the production of hives as early as summer 2016.  This will allow us to have the stock of hives ready for new beekeepers.  Our goal is to produce one hive per week.  While that sounds like a very small number, 4 hives per month will be more than enough to end out 2016.  We expect that the number of hives built each month to double starting 2017. Each hive will have everything needed for a hi...

By now you know where my main objective is.  The overall improvement for the people on La Gonave is to start with agriculture.  When you look at it, people have farmed for many generations on the island, however poor tools, lack of innovation, poor soil, lack of water, lack of seeds, etc.  There are many things that can be done, but La Gonave must have farmers who will become experts in the crops that they raise. Some NGO's are supplying seeds to farmers, and even go as far as providing water catchment systems, but the support ends there.  Providing seeds and water simply isn't enough.  Sure the farmer will raise the crops more successfully than they would have without adequate water, but again, this simply isn't enough. Farmers have to understand how to conserve and be strong supporters of conservation.  Conservation of trees, land, water, etc.  Then they have to be supporters of strong self sufficient farming practices.  This includes more ...

Agriculture is a way of reducing dependency, improving economy, and build incomes.  It has been a common theme that I have mentioned here.  Agriculture is one of the oldest professions for a reason.  Food prices in Haiti are somewhat high, especially for things like cereal, even though there is a cereal maker in Haiti.  While I don't know the cost of the Haitian cereal makers brand, buying your typical American cereals is very expensive.  Other food items are still a bit expensive.  The only way to drive down the cost is production.  We are working on ways to lower the cost of doing business on La Gonave.  While the island is a great test market due to the size and population, there are some challenges that we have to overcome.  More specifically, logistics will be a major issue.  Outside of this, La Gonave will improve it's own economy by not having to get food from markets in Port-au-Prince.  To a degree, La Gonave has to be in...

We have ordered a special variety of blackberry that could survive Haiti's relenting heat.  While the island has favorable conditions, heat could prevent the plant from surviving or produce fruit. Blackberries are a fruit that is not only known for pies and jams, but also known for it's high vitamin properties.  In places like Seattle, wild blackberries are everywhere and as a result millions of blackberry flowers produce several tons of fruit that is rarely harvested by the general public.  In fact all of the states in the lower 48 can grow blackberries. Given that there are many different types of blackberries, many will not survive in Haiti.  We are hoping to create the correct soil chemistry, as well as reducing heat to grow blackberries.  If correctly modified we could possibly make a variety that has no problem surviving in Haiti.  While this plant will produce a tremendous amount of fruit for locals it also is a wonderful addition for honeybee...

One idea to keep continuous supply of cash flowing into the co-op is to have a hotel.  Tourism is returning back to Haiti and most of that is centered in and around Port-au-Prince.  So putting a simple hotel in Port-au-Prince is really a smart choice for the future.  As you know I am a fan of shipping containers, and being the country's major port city, it is easy to get these containers in, and to move them in place.  This hotel would be very simple and only contain at most 12 rooms.  While it wouldn't be a major hotel, it would provide strong revenue into the Co-Op.  This will allow the co-op to employ staff that is needed once the Co-Op is larger.  Transporting, packaging, etc. are all jobs that are with the greater good of the cooperative, but not profit making ventures. To combat the problem of the Co-Op not being able to fun much larger programs, outside revenue sources are needed.  This will prevent the need for investments from ...

I wanted to discuss the agribusiness plan a little bit.  I have gotten many emails asking what does it look like, how will it happen, etc. As I have mentioned in many different blogs, a cooperative will be setup to handle and govern all of the farming programs.  It helps lower cost and give a strong competitive advantage when you have a cooperative.  So that is a brief overview of how it will happen. It will take a few good farmers to make the co-op work and it will take a new way of doing things to make it work.  While I have discussed beekeeping and tilapia farming, there will also be a focus on actual vegetable and fruit crops.  I mentioned things like the Pinto Bean for example, but I haven't discussed how the fields will be prepared. Major issues such as poor soil, lack of water, free roaming animals, and lack of farm equipment make normal open field farming very labor intensive.  The lack of basic controls really hurt and affect the crop produc...

The future goal of the La Gonave Co-op is to have many different farms and homesteads on the island.  All of these farms would be under a self-sustaining cooperative.  The co-op will eventually form a cooperative store.  The store would use the food from the various farms and would provide the food and services the public needs. Imagine a store that is naturally organic due to the cooperative's safety measures and standards of not using harsh chemicals and fertilizers.  Normally these stores in America would have pricy food, however the food on La Gonave would be affordable. While it is some time away, we are working on the plans of creating a Co-Op grocery store.  Obviously the store would be located in Anse-a-Galets.  While we feel that this store will be really needed in the community, we also understand how important it is to have affordable costs. We even have a name and logo already for the store and feel that within the next 2 to 3 years the f...