Research Projects

The following is the list of research projects ongoing or which have been completed at UNIF by its staff:

• Research paper entitled “A broken market: Can increased access to broken rice decrease food insecurity in Haiti?” conducted in concert with the University of Arkansas and published in the academic journal Food Security. Read the article here!
• Socio-economic diagnostic on the Region of Palms conducted in collaboration with Jean François Tardieu and the Ministry of Planning and the Unity of Geo-Satellites (UNIGS). Published on the Ministry of Planning website.
• Terra-Preta research project, a UNIF-developed innovation to re-vitalize soil which has lost nutrients due to erosion using locally-available materials. Ongoing, although preliminary results have been presented at various academic conferences in Haiti. Also supported by Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa in Brazil. Funded by the Julian Grace Foundation.
• Volumes I and II of the UNIF Diagnostic, which includes extensive socio-economic data on Fondwa.
• Study on the governance of local organizations in rural Haiti in concert with Virginia Tech (ongoing).
• Study on sweet potato production (ongoing).
• Study on the behavior of 3 types of bio-fortified sweet potatoes (ongoing).
• Creation of organic and locally available pesticides to protect peasant crops (ongoing).
• Study on the production of potatoes through tubers (ongoing).
• Trials of introducing new cassava varieties in Fondwa.
• Trials of introducing new cash crops to Fondwa (lettuce, peppers, grapefruit, tomatoes, spinach).