François doesn't remember his age, but he recalls that the entire lower Maribaroux region in the Northeast was once covered in rice during his youth. "There was an abundance of food in the region. We didn't go hungry. We weren't so dependent on the Dominican Republic," François reminisces. For several years now, the sixty-year-old, returning from his field just before noon after six hours of work, has faced a formidable enemy: drought. "There is no agriculture without water. Drought is our greatest enemy," François admits, holding a bag containing okra and spinach in his right hand. "Working the land is what I have done all my life," he says. Like other farmers, he hopes the canal will put an end to the regular loss of his crops, although he is a bit skeptical. "If we don't build other secondary canals, the water won't reach my field," he predicts.

François's four hectares are located about two kilometers from the canal, far from the planters in Ferrier, especially those from the Latas estate. These are the main initiators of the construction of the canal on the Massacre River in Ouanaminthe.