An average Haitian flower producer using traditional methods makes $170 per year on a surface of 1,000 square meters; a farmer who owns a greenhouse can generate between $1,500 and $2,500 annually, depending on the crop, on only a 70-square meter area—a staggering difference.

Farmers like Michel Dorlean, a flower producer, struggled financially. The horticulturalist grew up learning the family business of planting flowers on traditional hillside plots in his mountainous village of Furcy. The hillside locations leave flowers vulnerable to excessive heat, wind, humidity and rain. Dorlean used to lose a portion of his yields to weather.

But last year, his battered flower plots flourished into a profitable business thanks to greenhouse activities spurred by Feed the Future West, a USAID-supported project under Feed the Future. “You may not believe this, but my father has been working in the flower business for 40 years and, without exaggeration, I can say that within five years I will earn more than he made in all those years,” Dorlean said.  Flowering Entrepreneurs