Food and Income Security
Spring Program 2024
Etienne is launching a new program this season to insure that farmers have sufficient and high-quality seeds to plant not only this year, but in each succeeding year, by establishing seed banks. Participating farmers will be grouped into local cells for education, monitoring, marketing assistance, and support. They will borrow seed to plant, then at harvest they will repay the their bank with new seed and a small amount of interest, creating a self-sustaining program. The banks will store the seed securely until distributing them in the next growing season. The program goal is to avoid the problem of farm families not being able to grow enough food to both feed their families and sell for income.
Etienne and his agronomy interns and agents bring crop knowledge, high-quality seeds, and assistance in marketing their produce to farmers. Besides increased incomes, people are healthier because of the introduction of food crops with better nutritional value and higher yields than the limited range of plants previously available in the area. The efforts of Etienne and the agronomists he has trained and those he is currently training continue to reach more farmers with knowledge and practical help, including supplying them with seeds, livestock, veterinary care, and assistance with erosion control and preparing new fields for crops.