At the beginning of 2014, I went to Haiti to realise a photo report for the belgian association Codéart and the haitian Group of Support for the Rural Development (GADRU).

I was hired to document three subjects : the production of cassavas, agroecology and the Codéart workshops in Haiti.

First of all, what are cassavas ? Cassavas are pancakes of manioc, which can be compared to "carrabean bread".

The cassava provides the local population the nutritional elements that they need and also a certain autonomy. Indeed, the manioc is a local plant, easy to grow, and as a consequence the cassava production reinforces the food safety in a country that urgently needs it. It is a good way to give the local population an efficient weapon to fight hunger, without depending of international food support.

Unfortunately the youth doesen't want to keep cooking cassavas, because it is an extremely hard and unprofitable work.

So Codéart and the GADRU have created and distributed simple and efficient machineries which allow to transform manioc and produce it in collective cassava workshops with very few effort. This has permitted haitiens to re-appropriate the cassava production and to make it an economically profitable activity, also to reconquer a certain autonomy.

So I took photographs of all the process of cassava production; from lifting manioc to packaging cassavas.

Then I documented the blooming of agroecology and the technical work of Codéart in Haiti.

Notes :

This is an informative work that has been ordered to me. A more artistic and personnal work about this trip to Haiti exists and completes my work "Ruralities and (agri)cultures", even though some pictures are in both works.

The work as presented here is not complete. It is a sample.