GlobalGiving.org: Promote Sustainable Agriculture in Chiapas, Mexico

Training to Support Food Security

Gillian Wilson — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:02:21 GMT

Thanks to supporters like you, DESMI has been continuing several training projects at their agroecology centers. Ongoing projects over the year have included:

- A coffee growing training where the community members participating not only have the opportunity to learn hands-on how to grow coffee organically, but they are also selling the coffee and generating some income to help continue to run one of the Agroecology Centers.

- Community members are also continuing to receive training on organic fertilizers and pest repellents using locally available and renewable resources instead of having to rely on expensive chemical fertilizers and repellents. After the trainings, the community members have then gone on disseminate their new skills in their communities, reaching far more people than in the initial trainings.

- Additionally, DESMI reports success with chicken-care training and vaccination campaigns:

• Over 7,000 chickens were treated through chicken vaccination campaigns (to prevent Newcastle disease and smallpox) conducted in two municipalities (Akabalna and Benito Juarez) serving approximately 16 communities. • 5 technical assistance sessions on chicken care were conducted with 105 community members (60 men and 45 women representing 68 families) participating. Training included methods to improve chicken coops (drinking trough, nests for eggs, etc) as well as chicken hygiene and maintenance. • As a result of the chicken vaccination campaign and technical assistance sessions, 16 communities saw a lessening of disease and increased numbers of chickens in their chicken-raising projects, resulting an immediate improvement in nutrition with the addition of egg and returns on their investment in a fairly short timeframe. Additionally, many members have reported how important the chicken coops are as they allow women to multitask in the backyard by planting fruits and vegetables.

Thank you. With your help, indigenous families in Chiapas have been able to improve their capacity to implement sustainable, non-toxic methods for cultivating staple foods and vegetables and/or raising farm animals.

But there is more still to be done. DESMI has supplied us with details of their current activities and we have post new project information here: http://globalgiving.org/projects/sustainable-organic-agriculture-in-chiapas-mexico, project ID 6051.

Links:

New DESMI Project

Water Security Improvements in Chiapas

Gillian Wilson — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:50:02 GMT

Community members have been involved in the planning, construction, and maintenance of two nurseries that will ensure the continuation of eco-friendly and sustainable farming methods. The diversity of the crops will keep the soil healthier and reduce the risk of plagues and disease.

Lately, the 2 nurseries and their surrounding communities have benefited from water-related activities: - The nursery in Nuevo Tepeyac now boasts a new irrigation system. It taps into a nearby spring, includes a storage tank, and irrigates all of the nursery’s diverse crops. Seven municipalities will benefit from this nursery’s production.

- The Agua de Leon nursery received a rainwater-capturing tank with the ability to irrigate their fruit trees year-round. Community raining included the importance of water-conservation methods. This knowledge will be passed on with the intention that each family will eventually have their own backyard tank.

By donating to DESMI you are ensuring more communities like Nuevo Tepeyac can benefit from increased water security.

Thank you for your support.

Update From The Agroecology Education Centers

Gillian Wilson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:37:27 GMT

In the communities of Jolja and Roberto Barrios, where DESMI has 2 Agroecology Education Centers, they’re on track with their trainings on sustainable agriculture. From our latest update, DESMI reports on 3 ongoing projects: 1. Coffee Training: - Students participated in a coffee training project where they sowed 2 bags of beans, harvested coffee trees during prune season, and cultivated plantains. - Students sold the coffee and generated income to support both Agroecology Education Centers in both Jolja and Roberto Barrios. 2. Chicken-raising: - Participants constructed a chicken coop for breeding of chickens and producing eggs. - Additionally, 4o students participated in 2 workshops on chicken care (general care, vaccination, preventing disease). Students now know how to prevent and control avian disease common in the area. 3. Agricultural Training: - 45 students participated in a workshop on the value of native corn varieties and learned about the risks of genetically modified corn. - 40 students received training on different organic fertilizers and pest repellents using locally available and renewable resources. - 18 students participated in a workshop on vermiculture (worm composting). Students now know what care is needed for worm farming and understand the advantages of vermicomposting over using expensive chemical fertilizers.

Agriculture in San Francisco, Teopisca

Gillian Wilson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:14:29 GMT

Thanks to your support, many exciting activities have been taking place.

In the community of San Francisco, Teopisca, 8 collective members are growing organic vegetables for training purposes. The update from the field reports that they grew 3,100 red and white onions using vermicomposting (composting with worms) and they had very good results. Through support from DESMI, they learned how to add sheep and cow manure into the compost together with the worms. The benefit of this is to help multiply the worms, producing even more rich compost.

The land they cultivate is owned by the collective and distributed equally between the collective members. The collective will now try to grow maize with organic fertilizers.

They are currently in the process of learning how to save seeds so they don't have to spend money to buy seeds. For example, they are letting the onion flowers grow so they can collect the seeds to plant again. In addition to onions, they also grow beetroots, squash and lettuce.

This project was started as a response to women not being able to afford vegetables in the market. The practical solution was to grow their own produce. Now they have plenty of vegetables and are even able to share with their neighbors.

DESMI staff continues to support them in strengthening their work and with technical assistance. The group meets every Friday to talk about what plants they will grow, how they will prepare the soil, etc. This is but one of many successful organic agriculture projects that continues to be advance with your support!

Why Sustainable Agriculture Matters

Gillian Wilson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:04:59 GMT

Our latest report from the field is about two female agroecology “promoters” in the Pinebetal community in Municipality of San Cristóbal de las Casas. Along with their families, these women are practicing sustainable agriculture and sharing their skills with others thanks to your continued support. They share their experiences on a variety of sustainable agricultural methods, such as: • Diversified crops: On the plots they are growing corn, bean, potato, turnip, pea and coriander crops, as well as peach trees. In the backyard they sow coriander, radish, turnip, cabbage and oat seeds. The promoters say that “working with agroecology is part of being healthy. If you have a range of different crops it means your diet is varied; you’re not just eating corn and beans, but other kinds of foods too”. • Soil recovery: “We came from the hot lands, where a lot of corn grows because of the climate there. When we came here, the land was barren and badly degraded. We talked about it and said (we would have) to get working on soil conservation, but it was just an idea. A short time later we started work. Now we only buy corn every two months, but before it only yielded two hundred kilos per hectare, and now it’s a thousand”. The starting point for this thinking is to work on soil conservation, so that the other tasks of incorporating organic materials and fertilizers prove to be more effective. • Use of fertilizers: The families in this community make various types of solid and liquid organic fertilizers. By applying these organic fertilizers and conserving the soil, production has increased from 200 to 1,000 kilos per hectare. • Use and conservation of native seeds: Corn, bean, vegetable and fruit seeds are native to the region. Year after yearm they perform seed selection with the aim of conserving them; these seeds, as well as being used locally, are shared with other promoters from other communities.

Fruit Of The Good Earth

Gillian Wilson — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:51:38 GMT

Thanks to your continued support the coffee cooperative “Ssit lequil lum,” (Fruit Of The Good Earth) in the northern part of Chiapas continues to report back many successes.

Since our last update on Fruit of the Good Earth in December 2007, the cooperative has succeeded in acquiring much sought-after export permits. They immediately took orders for Europe. They successfully signed contracts and exported whole bean organic coffee to 4 countries: Tatawelo in Italy; Solidarity Café in France, Free World in Italy, Osporos in Greece and Café Liberty in Germany.

Currently, the members are building the capacity of the cooperative. This involves some technical support and DESMI is assisting the group in developing accounting protocols and maintaining fiscal responsibilities with the local tax authority to solidify their legal status as a commercial entity. This means they need to stay on top of the many necessary registrations and certifications.

The cooperative does not just grow coffee. The farmers also grow citrus fruits and bananas, and other small-scale crops. This diversifies their crops and their incomes. DESMI has been helping with the search for new markets for these crops.

More About Fruit Of The Good Earth

The cooperative is comprised of 594 members (coffee producers) from 5 autonomous municipalities, from both the Mayan Chol and Tzeltal ethnic groups. It includes 555 men and 39 women from 45 different communities. Over 2,900 people indirectly benefit from the cooperative.

The members take extraordinary pride in preserving indigenous culture and unity despite being from different ethnicities and language groups.

By organizing collectively, the farmers gain the scale they need to sell their products directly to exporters. This eliminates the need for middlemen and increases their profits.

Training programs help the cooperatives achieve export quality and obtain organic certification for their coffee crops. Just as importantly they develop knowledge to grow a wide variety of organic food crops for consumption and local sale.

The diversification of crops improves family nutrition (a critical need in this part of Mexico with the highest malnutrition rates in the country) and economic security while nourishing the soil for future generations.

Donate to DESMI now, through April 28 and in honor of Earth Day (April 22) GlobalGiving will match your donation at 50%. Please share your support of these coffee farmers with your family and friends.

March 2009 Update

Gillian Wilson — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:12:03 GMT

We are pleased to report that DESMI has an impressive wood-saving stove project underway. In addition to saving wood, the stoves greatly improve the health of women, and their children, who use them.

Exposure to and inhalation of smoke from burning wood with traditional stoves (lacking chimneys) causes a whole host of serious health problems- everything from respiratory infections and asthma to cataracts and carbon monoxide poisoning. Installing efficient, enclosed wood burning stoves is a simple, effective way to conserve the forests (deforestation is an increasing problem in rural Mexico) and remove smoke from the home.

In the small community of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, DESMI has ensured that all 18 families have wood-saving stoves, increasing their overall health and quality life.

The new stoves are culturally appropriate to Mayan cooking traditions and several nearby communities have expressed interest in installing the stoves in their own communities. DESMI provides training on the construction of the stoves, loans for the purchase of materials to build them, and on-going support to the families who use them them.

The women from the community are very grateful for their new stoves and have already seen tangible improvements. “We hope other women will be able to have wood-saving stoves, as they have helped us very much,” says one woman from the community. Others mentioned feeling better physically and saying their eyes were no longer red and irritated. Women reported that with their stoves, they are saving wood and cooking time because they can now prepare several dishes simultaneously. And yet another said: “Even the cats and chickens come up to the wood-saving stove and smile.”

December 2008 Update

Katherine Zavala — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:39:50 GMT

In 2008, DESMI staff conducted a total of 22 workshops and 83 follow up visits on sustainable agriculture, involving 950 participants representing 131 communities. The participants are ‘agroecology promoters’ chosen by their communities who attend the workshops in return for making a commitment to training their neighbors in sustainable agriculture techniques.

The training is multiplied as the promoters replicate what they have learned in follow-up workshops that they give in their own villages. The impact therefore reaches many more people than those who attend the initial workshops.

DESMI Constructs Ecological Training Center

Katherine Zavala — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:24:27 GMT

DESMI worked with community collectives to build a training center in Agua de Leon, a community in the municipality of San Cristobal de las Casas. While groups from 14 communities are initially using the center, eventually it will benefit 48 communities in the southern zone of Chiapas.

The center is designed to be a model for promoting ecological sustainability. It includes a greenhouse for germinating organic vegetable seedlings and saplings for reforestation. There is also an organic garden for hands-on training, composting toilets and rainwater harvesting tanks. To accommodate villagers from across the region there is a dormitory and a kitchen (including a wood-saving stove) for hosting multiple day workshops on-site.

June 2008 Update

Katherine Zavala — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:29:20 GMT

In the past year, DESMI conducted a total of 22 workshops and 83 follow-up visits on Sustainable Agriculture, reaching 950 participants in 131 communities. The participants are “agroecology promoters” chosen by their communities to attend the workshops while making a commitment to training their neighbors in sustainable agriculture techniques. This has a multiplier effect, reaching many more people that those who attend the initial workshops. By region: o In the Southern Zone of Chiapas: 486 people (288 men and 180 women) participated from 48 communities. In follow-up visits, DESMI found that 90 families had created new backyard gardens and 148 families had implemented sustainable agriculture on existing corn, bean and vegetable fields. Of these, 60 families have been implementing such techniques for three years. For those families, production has increased on average by 500 kilos to 1000 kilos total (or double). o In the Highlands Zone: 301 people (167 men and 134 women) participated from 62 communities. A key focus of the trainings in this area was on the promulgation of fruit trees as a source of nutrition and income. Grafting and disease prevention were the skills taught and reinforced in many of the workshops and follow-up activities in the field. o In the Northern Zone: 163 people participated from 21 communities. In this area of Chiapas much of the land is concentrated in the hands of large landowners while many indigenous families have very small plots of land. The training emphasis is on improving soil quality and increase crop yields to make the most of limited land. An important practice is the use of liquid fertilizers and soil amendments. On follow-up visits DESMI found in 12 of the target communities, the participating agriculture promoters had conducted 31 community workshops with their neighbors to share what they had learned from DESMI.

March 2008 Update

Katherine Zavala — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:13:34 GMT

Since the last project update, three workshops on livestock rearing were carried out in the Northern Zone of Chiapas. One workshop was a general training on raising animals in your backyard that eight women from four communities participated in.

The other two workshops were more focused on raising cattle raising and had a total of 19 participants. The topics that were covered were related to disease control, starting from what diseases cow can get and how they are caused as well as how to vaccinate and take care of the cow. Thanks to the workshops, the participants have now a veterinary kit that can be used for disease control.

After the workshops the participants provided feedback on what training they will like to receive to continue to improve their livestock-rearing project.

December 2007 Update

Katherine Zavala — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:54:40 GMT

DESMI provided technical assistance to farmers from 5 municipalities seeking to form a cooperative to export their coffee without needing to sell to intermediaries. The cooperative represents over 1,000 farmers. They are currently in the final phase of legal paperwork, and have negotiated their first sale. In late 2007, they will export two containers of coffee to Italy.

Most of the participating farmers are applying the organic farming techniques they learned not only on their coffee crops but also to their crops of corn, beans and vegetables. The members are studying the possibility of selling some of their vegetables in the local and national markets as their next step.

October 2007 Update

Katherine Zavala — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:11:18 GMT

In the communities of Francisco Villa, DESMI provided training workshops to the community members to reflect on the importance of sustainable agriculture when it is based on a model that respects and conserves the environment. The training raised awareness of the effects of conventional farming that depends on external raw materials and can destroy natural resources in the long term.

Throughout the workshops, DESMI imparted skills on how to produce organic fertilizers such as the ones made through vermicompost and by cattle droppings.

DESMI Progress Report August 2006

Katherine Zavala — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:33:59 GMT

Summary of Progress to Date

With the support of IDEX, DESMI provided monthly training workshops to representatives of 27 community collectives with over 650 members total on a variety of issues including sustainable agriculture, ecological management of livestock, financial administration and marketing, and women’s rights. DESMI also provided ongoing support to two organic coffee cooperatives called Nich Klumatic Maya (“Ancestral Home of the Maya” in the Mayan Ch’ol language) and El Chapuyol (a name derived from the chapuya, a local tree variety) to make progress towards obtaining organic coffee certification.

These two coffee cooperatives are on track to obtain organic coffee certification in 2007. The cooperatives are looking into the possibility of selling organic coffee within the growing Mexican market for this product, as they still are not producing at the volume needed for export.

Major progress was made in training 32 community members from 12 villages of the municipalities of Rubén Jaramillo and Akabalná to become sustainable agriculture promoters. With the support of the DESMI staff agronomist, these promoters completed a comprehensive training that focused on soil conservation and fertility, the usage of natural pesticides, and organic vegetable cultivation.

Promoters learned how to implement contour farming, which is a conservation practice the helps protect rich soil and water resources. In contour farming, crop row ridges are built by tilling and planting, which creates hundreds of small dams that slow water runoff and increase infiltration. Contouring can reduce erosion as much as 50 percent, helping to conserve the soil.

DESMI also trained the promoters to teach their neighbors to eliminate the practice of 'slash-and burn' farming, which is commonly used to prepare the soil for planting. This agricultural practice causes serious environmental problems, including destruction of local habitats, as well as severe respiratory problems amongst villagers. Replacing this practice with the composting and mulching of agricultural waste reduces air pollution, increases soil fertility, and protects biodiversity.

The promoters also learned how to produce plant-based pesticides, including a potent combination of chili pepper, garlic, onion and tobacco leaves for eliminating common pests, including a worm, which destroys the shade trees in many coffee fields. The mitigation of this pest using natural means helps to protect bird habitats and improve the quality of the coffee harvest while protecting the soil and water from toxic pollution.

IDEX staff met with some of the agriculture promoters during site visits in September 2005. They expressed pride in the way they are promoting the adoption of organic agriculture methods amongst their fellow farmers. They told IDEX that this has visibly improved crop yields, and therefore nutrition for local families. Interestingly, they also specifically see their commitment to organic agriculture as an important means to challenge the enormous influence of transnational agribusiness companies on farmers in the area by decreasing the sale of toxic petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Collectives in six villages of the municipality of Ruben Jaramillo have been working with cattle-raising projects and have received training in ecological management of pasturelands and sustainable animal care. IDEX staff visited two of these collectives and were shown how pastureland is rotated to prevent desertification, as well as how lush the nearby collective corn crops are, having benefited from the application of cow manure at planting time.

Attachments:

DESMI Project Update August 2006 (DOC)