Help Rural Communities in their access to food

With our food access project, we promote the self-production of agroecological gardens in both rural and urban communities. In our challenge to address food security, we support families in improving their productive capacities. Our technological tool, KOKUE, is a great ally, providing remote assistance to farming families in the Greater American Chaco region.

Today, we share a life story of one of these families who overcome challenges every day.

Nicolás, 50 years old, is the head of a family of five. He has had his garden for four years and has received technical support from ACDI for the past three years. ACDI's field promoters visit Nicolás's garden once a week to check on his progress and assist the family with any questions they may have. The promoters help Nicolás in the seed generation process for seasonal crops and optimize the cultivation space since his garden measures 50 meters, with no more space to expand production.

Nicolás shares that when he was introduced to the KOKUE application and taught how to download it, it was quite a challenge as he is not very skilled with his cellphone. However, he was excited about all the information the app provided, as he did not have much knowledge about farming, something he discovered he was passionate about over time.

Nicolás says that the most useful information was the technical sheets of the various plants, which helped him understand exactly what strategies to use for each vegetable he decided to grow. Additionally, the section on homemade biopreparations was his favorite, as he learned that agrochemicals are not needed to keep his crops safe. On other occasions, he mentions that they used the app’s recipe section to prepare dishes with vegetables that they did not usually consume at home, and now they include a variety of vegetables in their family diet.

Regarding production, Nicolás explains that he has always farmed for self-consumption and, thanks to the promoters’ support, decided to allocate the surplus production to create added value products. With the last corn harvest, they made “humitas” for sale, which was very successful, and he felt enthusiastic about the possibility of earning extra income for his family. Humita is a traditional dish typical of northern Argentina, very popular.

Nicolás is an example of resilience and a testimony to food sovereignty.