Haiti: Smallholder Farmers Organize to Shape $35 Million Agriculture Plan for Haiti’s North

UPDATE April 6, 2026: Since this story was first published, OPODHA leaders have taken an important step forward. They are working with partner organizations in the North and Northeast to develop a shared platform that outlines priorities for the new $44 million agricultural investment—focused on irrigation, seed banks, credit, and support for farmer cooperatives.

At the same time, they are coordinating to engage the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that this investment reflects the needs and experience of smallholder farmers.

In the weeks ahead, diaspora communities and allies in the United States will play an important role in reinforcing this effort—helping ensure that international institutions are accountable to the farmers and communities this investment is meant to serve.

In North and Northeast Haiti, smallholder farmers are organizing not only to improve their harvests — but to shape the future of agricultural policy and investment in their region.

The People’s Organization for the Development of Haiti (OPODHA) now has leadership teams in 74 communities across Haiti’s North and Northeast departments. Since 2023, OPODHA farmers have been organizing to adapt to long-term drought and climate change through their campaign We Plant Today, So We Can Feed Our Families Tomorrow.

In October 2025, OPODHA met with the Haitian Director of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to influence the bank’s priorities for agriculture in Haiti. In November and December, more than 1,100 farmers from all of OPODHA’s 74 communities participated in a new survey to document the challenges they face and communicate their priorities to IDB.

In January, IDB announced a $35 million investment in agriculture in the North and Northeast, in partnership with Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR). In March, OPODHA met with IDB to discuss how the new project could meet the needs of smallholder farmers in the North and Northeast.

Past agricultural projects funded by international donors have worked primarily with randomly selected farmers rather than with local associations and cooperatives, and have failed to address the structural challenges farmers face in obtaining irrigation, seeds, and credit. As a result, past projects have not achieved sustainable increases in harvests.

A new project and a new Haitian Minister of Agriculture create an important opportunity for grassroots farmers to shape national priorities and international investments affecting their livelihoods.

For OPODHA’s leaders, this moment reflects years of patient organizing.

For more than five years, OPODHA has been building a grassroots agricultural movement rooted in listening to farmers and developing solutions from the ground up. Rather than importing outside development plans, OPODHA organizers have conducted thousands of conversations with smallholder farmers across the North and Northeast.

Those listening sessions — involving more than 4,000 farmers — identified the most urgent needs facing rural communities: access to quality seeds, irrigation, agronomic training, tools, and cooperative economic structures that allow farmers to work together and reduce risk.

Building Solutions from the Ground Up

In response, OPODHA launched its agricultural campaign “We Plant Today, So We Can Feed Our Families Tomorrow” in 2023. The campaign focuses on rebuilding local food systems and strengthening farmers’ capacity to produce food and sustain their families.

Since then, the effort has produced tangible results:

• Community Seed Bank: Beginning in 2024, OPODHA launched a pilot seed bank to make high-quality seeds accessible to smallholder farmers. The program began in seven communities and has expanded to more than two dozen communities.
• Irrigation Equipment: In 2025, with $50,000 in funding from the Inter-American Foundation, OPODHA purchased irrigation equipment for 22 communities, helping farmers adapt to drought and climate variability.
• Collective Farming Networks: As of early 2026, more than 2,600 smallholder farmers — including 61% women and 12% youth — across 27 communities are participating in the campaign, sharing seeds, irrigation systems, and agricultural knowledge.

But the campaign is about more than farming inputs.

OPODHA organizers are helping farmers build cooperatives and mutual solidarity loan funds that allow communities to pool resources, buy supplies wholesale, and finance planting, education, and emergencies. They are also training local leaders and strengthening community governance so that rural communities can advocate effectively for long-term change.

Organizing for a Voice in Agricultural Policy

Now, OPODHA leaders are bringing those grassroots voices into discussions with international institutions.

The new farmer survey conducted across more than 1,100 households provides updated data on the conditions farmers face today. It confirms that agriculture in northern Haiti remains underfunded, poorly supported, and highly vulnerable to climate and market shocks, even though it remains the backbone of rural livelihoods.

Farmers report that most do not own the land they cultivate, while large landowners often hold unused land. As a result, farmers are forced to work extremely small plots that cannot produce enough food for their own families. Access to water remains one of the most serious barriers to expanding production.

These findings will help guide OPODHA’s discussions with the Inter-American Development Bank and Haitian authorities as they design the new agriculture investment.

For OPODHA leaders, the goal is simple: ensure that international financing reaches smallholder farmers, who remain the foundation of Haiti’s food system.

OPODHA’s organizing shows how grassroots movements can connect local farmer cooperatives to national policy processes and international financing institutions — ensuring that the people who grow the country’s food have a voice in shaping the programs meant to support them.

➡ Support grassroots organizing for food justice in Haiti