https://projects.ncsu.edu/project/cnrint/Agro/PDFfiles/HaitiCaseStudy041903.

pdf

One of the biggest problems Haiti has is soil erosion. They still use charcoal for cooking and
tremendous swaths of trees and growth have been burned for charcoal. As the soil erodes, it goes
into the sea, chocking the coral. From the air, you can actually see a distinct difference between
Haiti and the DR. If the international community could work towards soil protection and move
Haitians away from charcoal burning, this would go along way towards self sufficiency.(
https://medium.com/@rcormack/one-of-the-biggest-problems-haiti-has-is-soil-erosion-
2dc4368325d7)

Haiti has the worst soil erosion in the Western Hemisphere. The "land frontier" that once
existed was closed towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the man-land ratio in
agriculture has been increasing ever since. As the rural population grows, food crops are planted
instead of tree crops, notably coffee, on the steep mountainsides. Over time there is a tendency
for the output of food crops to expand and the output of export crops to contract. This is fatal,
for coffee is a tree that protects the soil and binds it. Food crops, on the other hand, leave the
soil exposed before planting, which happens to coincide with the rainy season. As a result, each
year tropical downpours wash away a considerable amount of topsoil from the cultivated
mountainsides. Thus, as export crops are replaced by food crops, the risk of erosion increases.

Once erosion has been set in motion, it feeds itself even in the absence of further population
growth. As the land is destroyed, more coffee trees have to be uprooted to make room for food
production. Erosion is nothing but a reduction of the arable land area, and such a reduction,
with a given population, produces exactly the same effect as increasing the population in a given
area. Again, the output of food crops, and with that the rate of erosion, increases, while the
production of export crops contracts.

The erosion process has exerted a strong downward pressure on peasant incomes for more than
a century. Reversing it is not easy. It is costly, and the benefits only show up in the future. It also
requires cooperation, for if a single peasant chooses to terrace his land and his neighbors do not,
the probability is high that his terraces will be washed away anyway.
(http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/part10-slide13.html)

“Tè a fatige,” said 70 percent of Haitian farmers in a recent survey when asked about the major
agricultural problems they faced. “The earth is tired.”

And no wonder. Virtually since 1492, when Columbus first set foot on the heavily forested island
of Hispaniola, the mountainous nation has shed both topsoil and blood—first to the Spanish,
who planted sugar, then to the French, who cut down the forests to make room for lucrative
coffee, indigo, and tobacco. Even after Haitian slaves revolted in 1804 and threw off the yoke of
colonialism, France collected 93 million francs in restitution from its former colony—much of it
in timber. Soon after independence, upper-class speculators and planters pushed the peasant
classes out of the few fertile valleys and into the steep, forested rural areas, where their
shrinking, intensively cultivated plots of maize, beans, and cassava have combined with a
growing fuelwood-charcoal industry to exacerbate deforestation and soil loss. Today less than 4
percent of Haiti’s forests remain, and in many places the soil has eroded right down to the
bedrock. From 1991 to 2002, food production per capita actually fell 30 percent.

//To boost food production, Kramer and colleagues founded Sustainable Organic Integrated
Livelihoods (SOIL), a nonprofit group that builds composting toilets in rural communities to
get much needed organic matter and fertility back into fields. “With the current hunger crisis,
it’s very clear,” says Kramer, an adjunct professor at the University of Miami. “If Haitians had
more local //

(http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/bourne-text)

The first biophysical factor contributing to soil erosion in Haiti is topography. On the Haitian
portion of Hispaniola, approximately 75% of the terrain can be characterized as mountainous
[12]. More than 60% of the land in Haiti has a slope gradient exceeding 20% [5]. Even without
human intervention, Haiti’s topography puts the soil at a naturally higher risk of erosion [13].

The second natural contributor to soil erosion in Haiti is its bimodal rainfall pattern. Haiti has a
tropical climate with two rainy seasons, from April to June and from August to mid-November,
which are interspersed with periods of drought [5]. Polarity in climatic conditions results in
alternating extreme environments that can facilitate soil erosion either by wind during periods
of moisture deficit, or by water during periods of intense moisture surplus [13, 14]. Drought also
causes soil crusting, which then leads to erosion upon the first heavy rains. The annual rainfall
patterns in Haiti are poorly documented but appear to be as low as 300 mm in the northwest,
and as high as 3,000 mm in the southwest [15, 16].

The third biophysical contributor to soil infertility and erosion in Haiti is its soil type. Soil
formation (pedogenesis) begins with long-term weathering of the underlying parent rock, which
in Haiti is predominantly volcanic rock or limestone [17]. The formation of Haitian soils has
resulted in one of four major subtypes (Figure 1), known as Udepts, Ustepts, Fluvents, and
Udults [17]. Udepts and Ustepts are subtypes of Inceptisols; these are newly formed shallow
soils that can support forests and grasslands, respectively. Fluvents are similarly shallow and
also sandy, making them susceptible to the leaching of water-soluble nutrients. Fluvents are a
subtype of Entisols, in which the rate of erosion exceeds the rate of soil formation. Fluvents
consist of water-deposited sediments along rivers and of soils found in floodplains. Finally,
Udults are a subtype of Ultisols, which are heavily leached acidic forest soils of low native
fertility that require additional nutrients to support successful crop production [17]. In other
words, the soils of Haiti are intrinsically fragile.
(https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2048-7010-2-11)

The third biophysical contributor to soil infertility and erosion in Haiti is its soil type. Soil
formation (pedogenesis) begins with long-term weathering of the underlying parent rock, which
in Haiti is predominantly volcanic rock or limestone [17].

The formation of Haitian soils has resulted in one of four major subtypes (Figure 1), known as
Udepts, Ustepts, Fluvents, and Udults [17].
Udepts and Ustepts are subtypes of Inceptisols; these are newly formed shallow soils.

 These soils are in the beginning stages of soil profile development

 Formed over limestone

 Very shallow to bedrock.
 Although relatively fertile, too shallow for cultivation
 can support forests and grasslands, respectively.

Fluvents are similarly shallow and also sandy, making them susceptible to the leaching of water-
soluble nutrients. Fluvents are a subtype of Entisols, in which the rate of erosion exceeds the
rate of soil formation and consist of water-deposited sediments along rivers and of soils found in
floodplains. Like Inceptisols, Entisols have little profile development, the central concept is that
these soils developed in unconsolidated parent material with usually no genetic horizons except
an A horizon.

Finally, Udults are a subtype of Ultisols, which are heavily leached acidic forest soils of low
native fertility that require additional nutrients to support successful crop production.

Udults: Ultisols of humid climates

SOIL
(http://soiledandseeded.com/magazine/issue05/turning_waste_into_a_resource_rebuilding_
haiti_soil.php)

Soil Erosion: Developing Agroforestry in Haiti (https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/48044)