Haiti is experiencing a long-term institutional crisis that is affecting the country’s ability to feed its own population. To combat this situation, organizations in the country have been developing their own solutions to combat the acute food crisis affecting the population. One of these is the Jean Marie Vincent Center, an initiative that, in two years, has trained and equipped more than 70 peasants with seeds and agricultural techniques.

“The idea is that peasants, more than having real food and no pesticides to eat, feed their communities, transmit this knowledge that respects the land, works and is in harmony with our culture,” said Jonas Paul, leader of the Tet Kole movement, the organization responsible for the center, which works to promote agroecology, agrarian reform, and food sovereignty.

The vegetables, fruits, legumes, tubers, and greens are grown in the rural Pignon region of northern Haiti. The center provides farmers with seeds for these crops so they can move closer to food self-sufficiency, one of the pillars of Tet Kole. Everything is produced without pesticides, using organic waste as natural fertilizers.

“We respect nature. In addition to food production, we cultivate an agroforest, so that the entire process is sustainable. In addition to planting, we develop irrigation systems – this is a historically dry region – so that we are not harmed in times of water scarcity,” explains Jonas Paul.

“This is a way of planting that is both ancestral and adapted to climate change,” he adds.

From Underground to Overground

“Let every peasant have his own land” was one of the mottos of Tet Kole when it was founded in 1977. Times were tough – with the brutal, pro-US dictatorship of Baby Doc. The movement was born underground and remained so until the despot who had inherited control of the country from his father, François Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, was overthrown in 1986.

“Peasants have always been the least favored in the country, and one of Tet Kole’s initial demands was equal rights for them,” explains Bellot Fontulmé, a member of the movement. “Today, there are 120,000 of us, all over the country, and we are associated with sister movements in the fight against anti-people projects,” he explains.

“The idea is to convince the State that we are a model to be followed, because we respect nature and feed the population in a healthy and affordable way. We promote a solidarity economy and defend the full inclusion of women,” adds Fontulmé.

“We are currently expanding this center, we have agronomists studying the most rational way to expand crops and train more and more people.”

Center in Port-au-Prince

The center in Pignon was not the first of its kind. A similar project opened 22 km (14 miles) from the capital, Port-au-Prince, a year after the Tet Kole movement was legalized in 1987. Since then, many peasants have been trained, and the result is that, after the collapse of central authority in recent years, it is these people who have been feeding the country and preventing a greater disaster.

The initial center was closed due to gang violence, which spiraled out of control in 2024. The Pignon facility is now tasked with passing on knowledge and providing a foundation for farmers in the region who use its seed bank.

The fight to maintain production continues despite those who oppose it. Big players like Monsanto. A few years after the devastating earthquake of 2010, Haitian farmers learned that they would receive “a gift”: 500 tons of seeds duly patented by the US multinational.

It is worth remembering that introducing such seeds into an organic environment alters the balance of ecosystems, sometimes making coexistence with traditional crops impossible. In other words, in one fell swoop, the “gift” would make Haitians customers dependent on US laboratory seeds.

“We investigated these seeds, saw that they were not producing results and explained this to the peasants. We organized a march with 20,000 people and the result was that we were able to stop this idea, which would have harmed the people even more,” explains Chavannes Jr. Baptiste, founder, spokesperson and member of the executive board of Mouvman Peyizan Papay (MPP, Peasant Movement Papay), another popular movement that has played a leading role in the peasant struggle in Haiti.

Movements debate solutions to the Haitian crisis

Surrounded by the lush green mountains and lush countryside of Pignon, the country’s peasant leaders are discussing solutions to the Haitian crisis. One thing they are certain of is that the solution must necessarily involve the local population as the protagonist and that the brutal cycle of foreign armed domination must end. They want only one thing from other countries: solidarity.

“There is a saying in Haiti that says: ‘when there are mangoes, no one goes hungry’,” explains Wallens Merrien, also from MPP, standing next to a loaded mango tree.

The country may be going through a crisis that is invisible to the outside world, which prefers to reduce the country to a chronically unviable nation, where aid efforts are useless. But the so-called “poorest country in the Western Hemisphere” – another label that reinforces the notion of impotence of those who see it from the outside – shows that it is developing solutions to its own problems and has much to teach the rest of the world.

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This article by Rodrigo Durão was first published by Brasil de Fato in Portuguese.