Increase family income of 50 Mexican farmers

“I have been with the program for 4 years. Educampo allows me to live well”. Sebastian Vazquez Cruz from Ocozocoautla County participated with 5 hectares and had a yield of 5.8 tons/hectare.

“It is a mistake not to be part of the Educampo program. Fundación Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural has not abandoned us throughout this time.” Eloy Olva Gomez Ocozocoautla County participated with 5 hectares and had a yield of 5.7 tons/hectare.

Sebastian and Eloy, as other 450 farmers from the state of Chiapas in Mexico have been part of the Educampo program for the past 4 years. In this past year, Fundacion Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural through the Educampo program benefited over 2,200 people in 12 counties.

They have been growing corn for generations but it has been only recently since they have seen an increase in their yields and their family income. This has allowed them to pay off debts, keep their children in school, buy a cow or an animal, and even have some family savings. Most important, these farmers have remained in their communities and continued working in the fields.

The Educampo program seeks to improve farmer income through increased production, organization, and farmer education.  Through this program, farmers are provided access to financing to purchase quality inputs, technical and social training, and are encouraged to form farmer cooperatives to increase their purchasing and marketing power.  Farmers are introduced to sustainable farming practices that help them significantly increase their yields and linked to reliable customers to sell their surplus grain no longer depending on middlemen.

“The Educampo program is a unique opportunity for famers as it gives them security: they use an adequate technological package, they receive the inputs on time, interest-free financing, mentoring and training throughout the year, and their produce is sold to a local buyer at guaranteed price under the contract farming scheme.”  Alfredo Lozano, Director of Fundación.

Fundación is about to finish this 2010 spring-summer agricultural cycle with many great success stories changing Sebastian, Eloy and many other Mexican farmers´ lives:  

• From December to February the Educampo farmers were harvesting their corn and selling it directly to local grain buyers at fair market prices.
• Educampo worked in 2,413 hectares.
• Yields increased from 1.5 ton/ha to 5.2 ton/ha on average. Sebastian harvested 5.8 ton/ha!
• Many of our Educampo farmers were introduced to contract farming for the first time—an agreement between a buyer and farmers, which establishes conditions for the production and marketing of a farm product or products—in which by the beginning of the cycle they know what price they would get for their produce.
• Under contract farming, farmers sold their corn at $280 USD/ton.
• Farmers now have a family income of 3.5 minimum wages ($5,200 USD/year) doubling their earnings from before Educampo.
• Over 6,800 tons were sold to local buyers.
• Our staff has provided 16,272 man-hours of mentoring and training on farming techniques, financial education and group / team.
• 12 organizations have been formally established which will allow them to keep working in the future—even when Fundación is no longer with them.
• 7 additional groups are about to be created and are just waiting for the final authorization from the government.

Educampo for 2011 spring-summer cycle

Fundacion is getting ready start the 2011 agricultural cycle. Educampo will work with 550 farmers and 3,000 hectares.

As in previous years, our work will include mentoring and training, farm inputs financing; commercialization; and human and social development for grower´s organization. We are expecting a productivity of 5.5 – 6 ton/ha which will have a direct impact on the family income.

We are working with ASERCA, a government agency promoting trading and commercialization of agricultural production, to have farmers under the contract farming scheme so they can know upfront what they will be receiving once they harvest their land. We will also be working with our key partners Monsanto, Bayer, Fertilizantes Tepeyac and General de Seguros.



Your contribution to our project will allow us keep working in Chiapas.  Our goal is to have farmers remain in Mexico, working in the fields and earning an income that will allow them to increase their quality of life. Please tell your friends and family about our Educampo Chiapas project - share the link on your blogs or social networks, use the tell-a-friend feature on the project page to email your network, or just bring us up in conversation.

Was this information helpful? Do you still have questions? We are currently working on developing our website in English and your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Send us your comments to fundacion@sembrandotrabajo.org.mx

Links:

• Our website

The Educampo program seeks to improve farmer income through increased production, organization, and farmer education.  Through this program, farmers are provided access to financing to purchase quality inputs, technical and social training, and are encouraged to form farmer cooperatives to increase their purchasing and marketing power.  Farmers are introduced to sustainable farming practices that help them significantly increase their yields and linked to reliable customers to sell their surplus grain.

Educampo is a program that focuses on economic development and competitiveness, human development and social development.  The success of the project lays on these three aspects which make it different from any governmental program or any other social program.

• Economic Development: This area focuses on the development of capacity to improve income.  It involves technical assistance and a technological package (financed from inputs to harvest), and guaranteed marketing of the product. The other important part of this area is the necessary support of the producers for a pre-established period of time (5 years), until they can handle the projects and their own development.

• Human Development:  This area focuses on improving self-reliance and empowering farmers.  Through Basic Social Education (our unique methodology), the farmers are taught to acknowledge their reality, to analyze it in a critical manner, to ponder their individual and collective options in a rational way, and to strengthen links of solidarity, cooperation and participation, aiming at having the producers identify themselves as the authors and subjects of their own development.

• Social Development: This area focuses on the development of farmer organizations.  This part of the program helps organize the producers in groups, as a major means to solve scale limitations, with the objective of having a professional administrative structure that would provide services to their members, generate market oriented added value transferable to the members of the organization.

The program started in the state of Chiapas in 2007 and to date, we have worked with more than 2,000 farmers.

Our activities this past trimester:

-          We have provided full time capacity building and technical assistance to 460 farmers in Chiapas.

-          We have been negotiating with local grain buyers to get a fair price.

-          Farmers will start harvesting corn in the next couple of weeks and will sell their produce directly to a local buyer at market prices.

-          We have accompanied farmers throughout the process and methodology of establishing 10 organizations.

Some expected results for cycle 2010:

-          460 farmers

-          2,500 hectares

-          2,300 people benefited with this project

-          Expected productivity: increased from 2.5 ton/ha to 6 ton/ha

-          Family income: increased from 1.5 minimum wages / year to 4 minimum wages (aprox. $5,900 USD/year).

-          Input financing from suppliers: 1.25 MUSD

Our 2011 goals:

-          Expand the project to 7,000 hectares.

-          Create 15 more organizations and strengthen the existing ones.

Your contribution to our project will allow us keep working in Chiapas.  Our goal is to have farmers remain in Mexico, working in the fields and earning an income that will allow them to increase their quality of life.

We know there are a lot of other ways you could spend your money, but you believe in our cause and we invite you to keep investing in our project. Please consider telling your friends and family about our Educampo Chiapas project - share the link on your blogs or social networks, use the tell-a-friend feature on the project page to email your network, or just bring us up in conversation.

Si necesita información en español, favor de contactarme.

Links:

• Educampo Chiapas and its benefits to local farmers (in Spanish)