With an estimated 1.5 % tree cover, Haiti is one of the most severely deforested countries in the world. The Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) is a Haitian non-profit foundation. It applies a social enterprise model to help feed and reforest a renewed Haiti by establishing farmer cooperatives, building agricultural export markets, creating rural farm businesses and contributing to community development. They work around 4 principles: aid for building the capacity for self-reliance in agricultural projects, making trees more valuable, supporting women to achieve an equal status with male farmers, and promoting organic agriculture.

With an estimated 1.5 % tree cover, Haiti is one of the most severely deforested countries in the world. The environmental effects of deforestation have been devastating and will worsen if deforestation continues. In addition, deforested areas are at a greater risk for landslides and flooding. Hundreds of Haitians are killed or displaced every year by flooding. In a country that is already vulnerable to tropical storms and floods every year, deforestation only exacerbates the potential damage to its population and its infrastructure. Today, the main culprit for deforestation in Haiti is the economy of most rural areas, whre rural families make room for their farms by clearing away Haiti’s natural forests. The trees that are cut often also fuel the lucrative charcoal trade, as many rural families make a living by burning charcoal and selling it in urban areas. The charcoal industry counts for 20% of the rural economy and at least 70% of the entire country’s energy supply. Between the country’s history of deforestation and the modern need for land and charcoal, not much is left of Haiti’s forests.

The Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) is a Haitian non-profit foundation. It applies a social enterprise model to help feed and reforest a renewed Haiti by establishing farmer cooperatives, building agricultural export markets, creating rural farm businesses and contributing to community development. They work around 4 principles:

- Exit Strategy Aid: agricultural projects that have not planned for their exit from the outset are doing a disservice to farmers by creating a dependency rather than building the capacity for self-reliance.

- Trees as Bio-Currency: making trees more valuable in the ground than cut for charcoal by having farmer-members of the SFA cooperatives plant trees in order to earn tree credits that can be exchanged for seeds, tools and training required for higher crop quality and yields, but also to be eligible to receive microloans, participate in local seed banks and get help with planting and harvest from work crews comprised of local volunteers.

- Supporting Women Farmers: equal but separate membership in the SFA for husband and wife farming partners, in addition to a micro-credit program that is exclusively for women farmers and includes leadership and business training. Supporting women to achieve an equal status with male farmers—and with equal access to resources—has been shown to increase farm yields by 20 to 30 %, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

- Promoting Organic Agriculture: SFA uses an ecological production management system that builds good soil, enhances biodiversity and uses no chemical inputs.

So far SFA is focusing on 8 programs:

1. Farmer Cooperatives: creating farmer-managed businesses with a triple bottom line: planting trees, increasing food production and improving farm livelihoods. 

2. Kay Plantè: a business providing agricultural supplies to farmers and wholesale food to micro-entrepreneurs, along with a marketing operation for farmer produce.

3. Farmer Field School: a certificate program for the SFA farmer-members that trains them to the level of an agricultural extension agent. 

4. SFA Microfinance: business training and loans to women farmers to assist them with creating and managing secondary business ventures such as the food stall shown here.

5. Alpha Bon: adult literacy and business training for the SFA farmer-members being led by the microfinance institution Fonkoze.

6. Moringa Export: a consortium of smallholder farmer cooperatives growing and processing moringa leaves into powder and extracting oil from the seeds—both for export.

7. Lime Oil Export: reintroducing lime trees in Haiti that will supply a plant being built there to process and export lime oil extract.

8. Reintroducing Cotton Export: a feasibility study is underway to explore the possibility of reintroducing cotton as a smallholder export crop.

Within its 8 programs has reached the following goals:

3,200 farmer members 

46% of farmer members are women

19 tree nurseries 

5,784,000 trees planted by the SFA between 2010 and 2016

6,300 acres under cultivation by farmer members (2,550 hectares) 

102 women farmer members currently receiving micro-credit loans

40% estimated average increase in crop yields by farmer members

50% estimated average increase in household income by farmer members

3,400 estimated number of additional children of farmer-members in school 

13,520 estimated total number of farmers and their family members positively impacted by the SFA’s work

SFA is showing that economic and ecological concerns do not always have to be in conflict with one another and that big business can be successful on a basis of cooperation and reciprocity of the those who support it and not through exploitation. In particular, the recent collaboration with Timberland has brought about the first cotton harvest the country had seen in nearly 30 years.