Growing Diversity - Latin America
TITLE OF EXPERIENCE: Awakening the farmer: the experience of farmers in Concepción, Masaya
AUTHOR: Farmers at La Concepción, Masaya, and Peasant-to-Peasant Program (PcaC) - National UNAG
COUNTRY AND REGION: NICARAGUA, Municipality of Concepción, Department of Masaya
ECOLOGICAL ZONE: Dry tropical lowlands
ABSTRACT
We are 17 farmers in Concepción, Masaya, who have been active in the "Peasant-to-Peasant Program" (PcaC) for five years. The "Pasapena" farm was confiscated from its owner in 1980 by the agrarian reform and then turned over to small farmers. We organized the "Gaspar García Laviana" cooperative, and today do all our work individually, from the preparation of the land to marketing. But we coordinate how we work, all of us conserving the soil, through meetings to reach agreement. We have four promoters who work with the group and who have had training outside the community in exchanges, so they can promote their experiments here. To mobilize the promoters a cash fund was created that generates profit through small loans at low interest rates which we administer among ourselves and with other persons.
In soil management in the fields we do activities such as: contour plowing, irrigation ditches, rotation and association of crops, no burning, incorporation of organic material, application of chicken (and more recently cattle) manure, live fences and windbreaks (guandu, sugar cane, taiwan and pitahaya), green manure (guandu, velvet beans and canavalia), reforestation with lumber and fruit trees. We have reduced chemical fertilizer consumption (complete and urea) by 90%, and have cut back 82% of the use of chemical poisons to control pests and disease.
We have diversified the number of annual crops from four to fourteen, currently. We have also moved from three to nineteen semi-perennials. We have also managed more diversity with livestock, since before we had three varieties of small cattle, and now we have six, with no change in the larger cattle. In terms of crop yields, we have increased the corn harvest from 20 qq/mz in the past to 25 qq/mz, while bean yields have grown from 9 qq/mz to 10,5 qq/mz. We have also achieved greater participation by women, as now 50% of them are involved in production and marketing, compared to 14% before.
CONTACT: Click here for updated contact details
PCAC - Programa De Campesino A Campesino, C.S.T (Central Sandinista de los Trabajadores)- 1c arriba 2 ½ c al sur
UNAC Nacional. Managua- Nicaragua, Tel:(505)2223566 fax: (505)2222235. E-mail: pcac@munditel.com.ni - jogeiran@latinmail.com