CAN receives Food Security grant to work with Nicaraguan partners
CAN to Initiate Food Security Project with Nicaraguan Partners
How can people around the world who grow the food we consume not have enough to feed themselves? In places ranging from Sub-Saharan Africa to California’s Central Valley, more than one billion people, more than half of these farmers and farm workers, do not have enough food to eat every day. It happens with such regularity in Latin America, coffee growing farmers call these seasonal hungry periods: los meses flacos, the thin months. In Nicaragua, this generally occurs between April and September, before the corn and beans are harvested and after the money earned from the coffee harvest is spent.
Many rural families suffer during these thin months while farming diverse shade coffee systems that conserve biodiversity, soil, and water. Although they grow small plots of corn and beans for subsistence, the harvest is impacted by climate change and drought. Thus the paradox of rich lands-poor people is added to that of hungry farmers (Bacon et al. 2008). For many, these dynamic yet fragile ecosystems are the canary in the coal mine for the ills of a global agro-food system and a changing climate that leave too many people without food while undermining our environment. (Gliessman 2000; Patel 2007)
Small-scale farmers have been seeking strategies for years, including seasonal migration, to mitigate los meses flacos. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) has focused the use of their social responsibility funds to address the issue of food ‘insecurity’ in the regions where they purchase coffee. This past September, CAN, in collaboration with our partners PRODECOOP and Nicaraguan-based NGO CII-ASDENIC, was awarded a 3-year grant from GMCR to lead a project focused on increasing food security in the Segovias region of northern Nicaragua. The initiative will directly reach 740 households (approximately 4,440 people) in nineteen coffee farmer cooperatives within northern Nicaragua.
This project will draw from CAN’s long-term network of researchers with experience addressing issues of sustainable livelihoods in six Mesoamerican farming regions. We will work in partnership with PRODECOOP and the nineteen farmer cooperatives to enhance food security by building resilient agricultural systems. Our objective is to recover the local knowledge about growing and preparing culturally desired foods. The project will unite PRODECOOP’s community youth promoters, farmers and women’s groups together with full time cooperative rural extension staff. We will start with a participatory diagnostic and then unite CAN’s accumulated experience with that of our partners to identify best practices. Next the cooperatives will develop and implement locally-specific Food Security Action Plans. The plans will address areas such as increased on-farm diversification and planting seasonal crops, storage capacity for basic grains, rural enterprises for livelihood improvements, soil fertility improvement, agroecological farming practices, and food nutrition and health.
Our excitement and gratitude for the opportunity to lead this important effort to improve food security was expressed by the principal project investigator:
“I think this project is an amazing opportunity to make a difference in the lives of some 4,500 people who do not get enough food to eat every day and the chance to make a tangible intervention that reduces hunger and enhances long term sustainability. I hope we hold this vision clearly with us throughout the project and the many decisions we must make.”
- Chris Bacon, CAN’s Lead Researcher in Nicaragua
With our partners, CAN will work with the farmers in developing ecological farming practices and long-term plans that build on local knowledge and address the immediate need for year round food security.
Bacon, C. M., V. E. Mendez, S. Gliessman, D. Goodman and J. Fox 2008. Confronting the coffee crisis: fair trade, sustainable livelihoods and ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press.
Gliessman, S. R. 2000. The ecological foundations of agroecosystem sustainability. Agroecosystem sustainability: developing practical strategies. S. R. Gliessman. Boca Raton, FL., CRC Press: 3-14.
Patel, R. C. 2007. Stuffed and starved: markets, power and the hidden battle for the world food system. Toronto, HarperCollins.
