By improving the physical soil condition and structure, composting helps to make crops less susceptible to pests and diseases, protects against erosion, and thereby increases farms’ resilience to disasters.

 In Dominica, hazards, such as storms, hurricanes, landslides, and invasive pests and diseases, directly impact agricultural productivity and production. Improving soil fertility is an important management practice in crop production in order to better mitigate the impacts of these hazards.

One method of improving soil fertility is the use of compost, an organic fertilizer that can be added to the soil. Compost can be easily made with decomposed organic matter from the farm, for example with crop residues and/or animal manure.