Reforestation efforts in Haiti, where only two per cent of forest cover is estimated to remain, got a leg up from Jamaica recently when a group of seven agronomists from that country visited Jamaica for a week-long intensive agricultural training programme.
The project was an initiative of non-profit, American-based organisation Trees That Feed Foundation.
Its founders, Michael and Mary McLaughlin, teamed up with the Hope Botanical Gardens; College of Arts, Science and Education; and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Boodles Research Station for the project.
“Our aim was to have training in grafting and circumposing to expose the participants from our neighbouring country as to how to produce more plants efficiently that can be used to reforest their country,” said Joseph Johnson, who is in charge of plant propagation at Boodles.
He schooled the Haitians, as well as three workers from Hope Gardens, in fruit tree propagation, particulalrly breadfruit, mangoes and avocados.