RACPABA, Tirivyè (Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite)

A group of young agronomists felt the need to share the results of a rice experiment with their communities, and created a resilient farmer's cooperative

RACPABA "Network of Cooperative Associations for the Production and Commercialisation of Lower Artibonite"

This initiaitve was founded in the area of Segi (Ségur). A group of young agronomists who observed a weak harvest in a valley in the Artibonite, and set about doing a two year experiment for seeing how to maximize yields per hectare. After these results, they saw the importance of sharing their experiences with other people. They went to meet with the directors of othe cooperatives in the Lower Artibonite and saw the importance of putting a network together where they could share their knowledge and their experience.

The objective of the network is to improve the conditions of the lives of the planters in giving them credit and technical assistance for their gardens. Today the network has an administrative council with 7 members who come from each cooperative. It has 2000 members, 6 tractors, and 9 roto-tillers, a laboratory to test rice, 2 centers for seed conditioning, and a transformation center.In each of the Artibonite’s two main growing seasons, the cooperative offers two different kinds of credit to its farmers, one of which is in-kind (providing seeds and inputs, and the farmers giving returns of seeds). They invested in a modern mill to reduce the amount of rice lost in the mill. Before the investment, 30%-35% of the rice would get broken in the mill. Now only 5%-10% gets broken in the mill.