San Jose, Costa Rica, 21 April 2025 (IICA) – Dawn Francis left a job in the corporate world to pursue her true passion, agriculture. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work, even as she remained mindful of her neighbors operating other family farms. Eventually, she was able to arrange for technical cooperation in the district and even established her own organization.
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has named this Caribbean rural farmer as one of its “Leaders of Rurality of the Americas”, and as such she will receive the “Soul of Rurality” award. This organization that specializes in agricultural and rural development created the award to turn the spotlight on men and women who are leaving their mark and making a difference in rural areas of the Americas.
With a warm smile that never fades throughout the interview, Dawn tells us that “[she] worked in a bank for twenty years”. After a decade and a half as a supervisor in a branch of a well-known international bank in Rouseau, the country’s capital, she confessed that, “I realized that although I loved to help people, I no longer enjoyed the corporate world”.
“I had a dream…”—she continues— “a dream that I was in a forest, and I looked so content and happy”. In the dream, Dawn had a “secret garden” in the forest.
That moment prompted a change in the direction of Francis’ life, which began with her learning about sustainability and organic agriculture, in particular through programs organized by international agencies.
One of these projects took her to Wa Samaki Ecosystems in Freeport, Trinidad and Tobago, where she was introduced to a practice that enticed her: permaculture. Permaculture is an agricultural design system in which production areas work in close harmony with the surrounding natural environment.
“When I learned about permaculture, I realized that I was in the right sector. I felt that I could fulfill my passion, and I discovered my reason for being on Earth”, Francis recalls.
Subsequently, thanks to an IICA program, she traveled to Mexico to pursue an earth sciences course, which she describes as “a marvelous experience”. During that visit, the Dominican farmer recalls that, “the thing that struck me the most was when I spent time with a farming family that consumed only food grown in their own fields”.
These practices became a goal for Francis, a type of sustainable criterion that stipulates that at least eighty percent of what is consumed in rural areas, should come from the land itself.
Mexico left her with unforgettable memories, such as sitting at nights with the rural women and watching them knit together. “For me, these moments represented peace and tranquility”, she reflects.
On returning to Dominica after her educational tour, Dawn found a two-and-a-half-acre farm waiting for her – a gift from her mother. She was able to establish “an adorable family farm, D-Smart Farm” on a piece of land “where [she has] been practicing organic agriculture for more than twenty years”.
She also established a biodiversity center to teach primary and secondary students about agriculture and the environment. The children enjoyed the field activities, and for Dawn, these were moments of fun on the farm.
The situation changed in September 2017, when a devastating force visited the Caribbean. Hurricane Maria, a tropical cyclone, ravaged Dominica, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, leaving hundreds of deaths and immense material damage in its wake. Experts consider it to be the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Jeanne in 2004.
“Everything was damaged”, says Francis. Maria “broke our hearts and I am still emotional when I remember it”.
However, not even this terrible tropical cycle could extinguish Dawn’s dream. “I am resilient; I am a resilient black woman”, says the farmer. In fact, she insists that, “Being close to the land makes you strong and resistant”. Furthermore, watching the forest renew itself after the hurricane, “made me stronger and my family and myself began to rebuild” the farm, which is located in the village of Pont Cassé.
Francis has had a significant impact on sustainable agriculture and organic farming in her native Dominica.
Strength and hope
Francis has a solid relationship with multilateral institutions and in 2011 even formed her own organization, EcoBalance Inc. Its Board of Directors is one hundred percent female, and it is positioning itself a conduit to nurture the future of Dominica “through environmentally conscious and purposeful initiatives that aim to achieve green transformation”. Through this effort, they are “Uniting for a Greener Tomorrow: Inspiring Hope, Catalyzing Progress”.
Thanks to funds mobilized through EcoBalance, Dawn and her partners have organized training programs for farmers and implemented plans to acquire equipment for the region. One of these programs, funded by the Government of New Zealand, enabled them to introduce poultry rearing to a dozen farms in the area, supplying the farmers with feed for the chickens, offering management classes and sharing agribusiness secrets.
By the end of the project, Francis reports that the participating farmers “were already selling eggs”. More importantly, they were using the manure from the birds to cultivate their vegetables, thereby applying less inorganic fertilizer.
Dawn shares her view that the results demonstrate that, “Every venture led by women succeeds, which is something that would also apply to the field of politics”. If there were more women leaders, she believes that “the world would be a different place, a better place”.
According to Francis, the participants in the agricultural training sessions in Dominica “are more likely than not women”. She believes that this is because “we are the ones that absorb knowledge; we are strong”.
She is quick to point out that, “This does not mean that men have no strength, but women make things materialize: “we come together, collaborate and work to ensure that our plans become reality”.
When asked about the involvement of upcoming generations in agricultural production, Francis is realistic. First, she admits that young people “do not want to cultivate crops in the way that we have been doing it, with such intense and hard work. They don’t want to do this”.
Yet, all hope is not lost. Through a program sponsored by the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, a course on agricultural hydroponics was launched in Dominica. As organizers, “we were expecting about twenty participants, but eighty people expressed an interest, with half of them being under thirty-five years of age”. In the end, fifty-five students registered in the course – individuals with an interest in growing plants without the use of soil, using instead a solution of water enriched with nutrients.
Dawn realized that “young people may have an interest in agriculture”, but using alternatives such as hydroponics, rather than traditional, intensely physical methods.
Potential producers in rural areas in the future “are looking for something easier and faster, which is not physically intensive” and which can quickly generate income”.
In ending the conversation, Dawn Francis launched an appeal to multilateral institutions and development agencies. “Farmers in countries like Dominica need access to financing. They must have resources to tackle problems, such as roads in poor condition, the lack of manual labor and limited access to equipment.
Without these incentives, producers will only advance “slowly” without daring to take risks. “If big steps do not yield economic benefits relatively quickly, they won’t take them”.
Francis established a biodiversity center, which welcomes primary and secondary students, teaching them about agriculture and the environment.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
