Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Gardens Part II - Irrigated

Saul the agriculture extension agent gave us a tour of his gardens. Huge beautiful fields of cabbages, with tomatoes and peppers along the edges. Even a small patch of rice. Banana trees and breadfruit trees. And a couple of huge trees that survived the deforestation. It was impressive.

Then we went to his garden that has irrigation canals. It was like a botanical garden. Different varieties of bananas. Coffee trees. Cocoa trees! - the orange things in the picture are the cocoa pods. I suggested that Saul open a restaurant overlooking the gardens, and give tours. It’d be a perfect place to relax and enjoy the beauty and food of Haiti.

This final photo shows corn being irrigated, right next to coconut tree. I don’t know if it is as productive as the same sized Kansas corn field, but they also aren’t trying to grow the corn just to feed cows like they do here in the US. That Saul can grow his own rice is a huge deal. The Haitian rice farmers are driven out of business by the importation of American rice (cheaper due to subsidies). Thus

people lose jobs and can’t feed themselves, and the money goes to the US.

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