for profit and for the environment
Nicaraguan sesame farmers are growing better crops, realizing more profit, and heading towards an organic way of doing things – and it’s all thanks to MEDA’s Produmer program.
With up to $2.8 million in CIDA funding, the project is set to continue until the end of 2008, and possibly longer, thanks to good financial management and a strong Canadian dollar. It’s currently in its second phase, having received more funding after proving its value to Canadian diplomats during the first phase, from 2001 to 2005.
“I’ve been pretty impressed because this project not only touches on the private sector development, but it does it in an environmentally sustainable manner,” said Kerry Max, Canada’s head of aid in Nicaragua, and the person who oversees the project on behalf of the Canadian government.
Last year’s results speak volumes about the program. Despite heavy rains that caused the loss of eight per cent of the sesame crop, overall yields still increased by 41 per cent. The increased quality and coordination in selling the crops allowed producers of conventional sesame to earn about $30 U.S. per quintal last year, up from an average of $28 the year before. (A quintal is about 100 pounds).
For the 17 per cent of farmers (or productors, as they prefer to be called) who’ve made the switch to organic sesame under Produmer, $45 per quintal is the going rate.
“Getting people to go organic is a great thing for Nicaragua,” said Max. “Contamination from agriculture can be a real problem.”
The Produmer program is a natural fit for Nicaragua, as its government has set export development as a priority, and sesame itself is able to fill a void left behind after the collapse of Nicaragua’s cotton industry in the 1980s.
In the Occidente, the western part of Nicaragua, cotton has left behind a legacy of contaminated soil and groundwater. Though sesame is more labour-intensive than cotton, it is also a heartier crop.
“Sesame is great for Nicaragua because it can handle poor soil and erratic rainfall,” noted Keith Poe, the Managua-based project director for Produmer Phase 2.
Luis de la Cruz Sotelo, a farmer in Malpaisillo, a village near Leon, said he made the switch from conventional to organic ajonjoli (sesame in Spanish) two years ago. The switch requires four harvests before the sesame can be certified as organic, making it somewhat a leap of faith for many farmers.
De la Cruz Sotelo said the main reason he switched was for the profit, but he also cares about environmental damage. “Four years ago, conventional cotton made some people sick here, and pregnancies were at risk,” he said.
Produmer consists of a technical package involving in-the-field assistance and lessons in planting, thinning, fertilization, and weed control. It connects farmers with local microcredit institutions – one of which is run by MEDA – and finds international markets for the sesame. The program also has a gender component, aimed at getting men to realize their wives can be equal partners in farming activities.
One of the best things about Produmer is the fact that it will leave behind techniques that farmers share with other farmers, thus having a lasting effect long after the project ends.
