About Us

Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

The Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) is an independent non-profit charitable organization founded in 2010 in Haiti. Our mission is to help feed and reforest a renewed Haiti by helping smallholder farmers to become more productive and profitable, while at the same time contributing to the restoration of the environment through organic practices and tree planting.

There are 6,000 SFA farmer members throughout Haiti. Together they operate 3,000 farms of 5 acres or less, with husband and wife recognized as separate members when they farm together.

The SFA operates 32 tree nurseries that are clustered around 7 branch locations. There are several nurseries in each branch because every farmer member has to be within walking distance of a nursery. Smallholders operate these nurseries to grow trees which they transplant as orchards, living fences, slope stabilization and reforestation projects. Tree planting and maintenance earns the farmers credits, or “tree currency,” which they exchange for high quality crop seeds, tools, basic agricultural training and a range of other agricultural services. These earned inputs help farmers to increase yields by an average of 40% and household incomes go up by 50 to 100% depending on the area.

Every agricultural service offered to smallholder farmers is accessed by them using tree currency. All members automatically receive three core services in the form of seed, tools and training. The other services are implemented at selected branches, depending on both local needs and SFA resources. These include a microcredit program giving loans to women farmers, community seed banks, farm supply stores and a livestock gifting program. The latter provides farmers with cows or goats: each farmer is a custodian of the animal until an offspring is gifted to a second designated farmer and only at that point does the first farmer own the original animal.

The SFA reintroduced cotton to Haiti starting in 2017. Recently the organization transitioned from organic to regenerative cotton, and helped to develop the Smallholder Data Services technology platform being deployed in the field to verify the regenerative status of the cotton grown.

Three SFA projects fall outside these direct services to farmers. The Green Corps places recent graduates as interns with the SFA and other smallholder NGOs. The SFA supports the creation of a comic book series in which the supershero character Tanama connects with a younger generation about tree planting, smallholder farming, and gender equality. The SFA also provides emergency and long-term recovery assistance following natural and health disasters.

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 the seed, tools and training required for higher crop quality and yields.

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.

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