''El FIDA trabaja a 3.200 metros de altura para ayudar a sus padres a producir más y mejores cultivos para su alimentación diaria'' IFAD Photo by Farhana Haque Rahman

Name of the Project
Cuchumatanes Highlands Rural Development Project

Location of the Project
Guatemala

Responsible Organization
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Description

Agriculture plays a fundamental role in the Guatemalan economy and small farmers are decisive in this sector. Most small farms are concentrated in the highlands.

The area of the Cuchumatanes Highlands, located in the north-western part of the country, is isolated and mountainous. The population here is of Mayan ancestry (and, although sustained by strong cultural traditions) more than half live in extreme poverty.

High altitudes of 1800 - 3000 metres create living conditions that are among the most difficult in Guatemala due to the high population density. Steep slopes, natural range and forest areas are all currently used in agriculture causing major environmental problems such as soil erosion and deforestation.

The Cuchumatanes Highlands were targeted because up to 90% of the 22000 rural families in the area have no drinking water or electricity. High rates of illiteracy, infant mortality, child malnutrition and inadequate healthcare reflect its status as one of the least developed areas in the country. Small rural villages lack basic assistance and have no access to roads, health and educational services and credit facilities.

Most of the highland people are small farmers, with less than 3.5 ha in land holdings; several thousand are landless. Seventy-nine per cent of the families have annual incomes of less than USD 1 per day per family member. This income is derived primarily from traditional farming and sheep-breeding, but also from seasonal migration and a few off-farm artisanal activities in textiles and pottery. The majority of small farmers produce maize, beans, potatoes, wheat and oats, keeping most of these crops for family consumption and selling only what is necessary to buy other basic goods.

The project became effective in December 1993, and its strategy focused on improving family nutrition and incomes by incrementing traditional crop production, diversifying crops with fruit and vegetables and starting small-scale farm irrigation schemes. The project also aimed to support rural banks, enhancing credit availability and financial services that enabled small landholders to improve farm practices. To address the area’s serious ecological situation, project activities introduced sustainable farming methods and financed conservation works.

The organization and training of peasant groups was considered fundamental to the project’s strategy and success. By strengthening existing associations and creating new ones, farmers gained bargaining power through shared facilities and information. Furthermore, trained peasant leaders, men and women, interacted and coordinated the project’s activities.

The project reached almost 8000 families. About 45% of the beneficiaries were rural women, including heads of families and the landless. In selecting who was to benefit, priority was given to the local peasant associations, to those farmers wanting to join these groups, to women (with capacities for) community leadership and to the landless, whose family members must migrate seasonally.

Results Achieved

Thirty-six years of war had set back Guatemala’s entire social structure. The Cuchumatanes project succeeded in reconstructing the social fabric and strengthening grass-roots organizations. It supported 16 farmer organizations (OFPAs), which together constitute the Asssociation of Cuchumatanes’ Organizations (ASOCUCH). Among the most important recent achievements was the legal recognition of ASOCUCH by the Guatemalan authorities. The association provides a range of services for its 7865 members as well as for non-members. It works to protect natural resources and the environment, promote efficient use of human, material and financial resources, and generate savings that make it possible to compete in the marketplace, with quality produce and better prices.

Project beneficiaries continued to increase annually and reached 87% of the initial families targeted for support. New farm technologies were applied for the environmentally-friendly production of vegetables, coffee and organic coffee, for soil conservation and the appropriate use of natural resources, and for the improvement of livestock management and production, and the commercialization of sheep products. Technical and financial project assistance made the construction of new irrigation works possible in potentially productive areas. Through newly created communal banks, financial services became available to rural families, who receive loans of up to USD 100 for income-generating activities and family emergencies. These banks have also promoted the Women’s Credit Self-Managed Fund. The fund’s participants receive loans for microenterprises and training in savings and credit management.

The high illiteracy rate of 73% in the Project area , made it imperative to provide logistic and economic support to the National Committee for Literacy (CONALFA), which focuses mainly on improving women’s education. Women also received training in nutrition and food preparation in order to improve family nourishment. Both men and women received gender training and were involved in family projects resulting in better conditions for women in the home.

Lessons Learned

• The social and economic sustainability of a project depends on the level of organization of beneficiaries. When ASOCUCH was created and its members began to take over the main IFAD components and activities, the project became sustainable. This, however, does not imply that project clients and organizations do not need further support. The future depends on them.

• In order to be successful, financial services (savings mobilization, credit, etc.) have to adapt to various factors taking into account the clients’ culture and traditions, the different types of material resources (land, water, potential products to be produced) and the potential market factors.

• In war-torn and post-conflict areas, activities to strengthen social structures and communal infrastructures must be closely linked to those improving individual farms and small enterprises. Development of collective and individual activities must progress hand in hand.

In the Words of Our Clients - From interviews conducted in March 2001

Ricarda lives with her husband and five children in a single room, where she also stores potatoes. She is 37 years old and lives in Huiton, the poorest of poor areas. Their dwelling has a mud roof, which Ricarda considers a major improvement over the previous one made of straw. Up before dawn, she must walk a kilometre to gather firewood, then work the land, plant potatoes and look after the few chickens and pigs they have, while the children look after the sheep. The children have no milk and eat primarily potatoes, maize tortillas and every so often beans.

For the past three years, the Cuchumatanes Highlands Rural Development Project provided her with technical assistance, training and marketing support as well as a loan. Now she plants potatoes using a new technique and this has improved the crop. She also plants forage and oats, something she didn’t do before because the crops would wither. The seeds she received under the project, however, have given good results. Ricarda and her family were able to build several water cisterns and now only when they run dry is it necessary to walk two and a half hours to fetch more water. Ricarda attended meetings organized by the project. ''I now know other people who have the same problems as we have. Before, I didn’t speak to anybody. I’m really happy.''

Juana is only 22 years old. She, her husband and four children are Maya and speak Mam. It is an effort for them to speak and understand Spanish. At an age when young people like Juana in many other countries go to the university - and can enjoy a good movie in the evening, - she spends her entire time working. Like Ricarda, Juana fetches firewood at four in the morning and prepares tortillas for breakfast in the only room they have, where they sleep, cook and keep warm. After breakfast her husband helps her with the potato crop. The project loaned Juana 32 000 quetzales (approximately USD 500), which she has not yet been able to repay because the last crop was ruined by frost . ''Life is hard, but I think things might be better for my children. We now have schools. There were none before. I didn’t have the chance to go to school'', she says, ''but they will be able to''.

Guadelupe, 58, is one of the 71 members forming the Cooperativa Agrícola Integral Paquixeña Cuchumateca at Paquix. The cooperative used to sell its produce to middlemen, ''…sharks, who were making the most profit, and earning more than we were'', she says. Thanks to project services and training, these farmers - who previously had never attended school or at least not for very long - are now managers, assistant bookkeepers and loan officers, marketing their own produce with doubled returns. They have been exporting potatoes to Honduras, along with some vegetables, carrots, oats and beets. They had no access to bank credit before, but with project loan assistance Guadelupe’s cooperative set up a rural savings bank and is now able to grant loans to its members.

Froilán likes to demonstrate his ability at using the computer purchased with a loan by ''the Cuchumateca cooperative''. He never attended school beyond third grade, but the training he received has helped him become an assistant bookkeeper. First thing in the morning, he switches on the computer to get the online market situation. ''This opened up a new world for us.'' Now Froilán knows at what price produce is, where the demand is and much more about sales potentials and best markets.

Eulalio is 36, and married, with four children. He is a member of a 110-strong cooperative (60 women and 50 men members) at Chernan, in the province of Huehuetenanago, where 150 families lived in a state of extreme poverty. Now they slaughter and sell 500 sheep a month to El Salvador and Honduras, as well as in Guatemala, and are exploring market possibilities in Mexico. With increased income, Eulalio has been able to build a place for storing the potatoes he grows. He now has electricity and even a television in his home. ''The project has in some ways changed my life.'' With a project loan he was able to build a shed for his sheep, upgrade the quality of his animals’ and improve their market value.

IFAD Operations in Guatemala | IFAD Through Photography - Guatemala