ATAL, Calumette

ATAL is a community organisation with an incredibly successful tree nursery, and experience reinforcing community capacity through agricultural training and micro-lending. 

ATAL is an organisation which stands for “Association of Agricultural Technicians of Limbe”.  It is located in Calumette, the 4^th  section of the commune of Limbe, approximately an hour and a half to the west of Cap Haitian on Rt National #1. 

It was formed by a group of young men trained by agronomists during the instability after the coup d'etat in 2001, and as the country returned to normal they decided to put their knowledge to use. In 2007 they formed ATAL, and they started with a small tree nursery, giving plants to schools and community members. They were so successful at their tree nursery, they began getting larger contracts to prepare trees for organisations like USAID-DEED. The funds they earned from this activity they reinvested back into their community. They began teaching the farmers in the community more effective ways of planting, and lending them starter plants and seeds.  ATAL also includes a women's movement, and seeing a need for micro-lending, it took funds from its nursery and its members and lended it to 5 women, and when those 5 women paid the loans back, they lent to another 5, and so on. Currently, ATAL has lent over 60 women money to start or reinforce their small businesses, and they intend on continuing and scaling this as well. 

ATAL is a firm believer in the importance of training, and is open to training other organisations on tree nursery management, reforestation, and a range of its agricultural techniques. They also have experience in forming a federation with farmer's cooperatives and community organisations across their commune.