Guatemala

Project Location
Regional Project
Women's Project
Project History

 Strategies for International Development’s (SID’s) projects are located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. SID works in Northern Chimaltenango, the first of the Highland departments to the west of Guatemala City, the capital. We also work in Alta Verapaz, the Highland department to the north of the capital.

The two project areas are similar. The farmers have small plots of land; they grow corn and beans for home consumption; and coffee is the ideal cash crop. Both areas are 1,300 to 1,700 meters (a mile) above sea level, and farmers in both areas grow coffee for their income. Also, the coffee produced at these high altitudes is classified as “strictly hard” coffee, and exporters pay approximately 50% more for this type of coffee than they pay for the softer coffees produced at lower altitudes.

However, the farmers earn only a small portion of what they could earn from their coffee. They have low productivity, and they need to improve the shading, pruning, and fertilizing of their trees in order to increase their production and income. Also, they don’t husk their coffee. They sell it to local buyers called “coyotes” rather than husk it and sell it directly to exporters for a higher price.

Coffee plots at high altitudes are usually free of the plant diseases that infect coffee trees at lower altitudes. But in 2012 a major outbreak of coffee leaf rust swept through Central America, infecting coffee trees in Northern Chimaltenango and Alta Verapaz as well as those at lower altitudes. The leaf rust is a fungus that attaches itself to the underside of the leaves of the coffee trees and reduces photosynthesis, the growth of the leaves, and the coffee fruit. As a result, farmers need to spray their trees with copper sulfate and lime to protect them against leaf rust.

The farmers live and farm on mountainsides, and they need to terrace their land to protect it from erosion. They use firewood for cooking, and they need to re-plant trees they cut to prevent mudslides during years of heavy rain.

The farmers in Northern Chimaltenango belong to the Kaq’chiquel community of Mayans, and the farmers in Alta Verapaz belong to the Q’eqchi and Poqomchi communities of Mayans.

GIVING ALL FARMERS IN A REGION A CHANCE TO GRADUATE FROM POVERTY

SID is using a regional approach that gives all poor farmers producing a common cash crop the chance to graduate from poverty. We are applying this regional approach with 18,380 coffee-farming families in Guatemala’s poorest department, Alta Verapaz.

Alta Verapaz has 26% of Guatemala’s coffee farmers, and they produce high-quality Arabica coffee. They are poor because they have low productivity, and they sell un-husked coffee to local buyers rather than husk and sell directly to exporters. They earn less than $200 a year from their coffee when they could earn at least $700.

The Goals of the Project are:

  1. 13,785 coffee-growing families (75% of the 18,380) know the practices that conserve mountainside land and increase productivity, price, and income.
  2. 6,893 farm families (half of the 13,785) adopt at least 2 conservation practices, 2 productivity practices, and husk a portion of their harvest.
  3. 3,000 families that agree to adopt all the practices receive twice-monthly assistance in adopting them and increase income from $200 to $700 a year and control erosion on 221 hectares of land.
  4. 1,650 women in the early-adopter communities establish second businesses and earn at least $350 a year from these businesses.

Project Activities

The five core activities of the approach are:

  1. Representatives of farming communities take the lead in defining the practices they need to adopt to conserve land and increase income from the common cash crop.
  2. Local officials, teachers in PTA meetings, radio stations, and others teach the practices and encourage their adoption. The practices become common knowledge and expected behavior.
  3. SID conducts demonstration fairs in the practices. Farmers see and try their hand at the practices, and they become palpable and acceptable.
  4. SID provides technical assistance in the practices in communities that agree to adopt all of them. They conserve land, increase income, and become examples for others to follow.
  5. Women receive additional assistance in setting personal goals, solving common problems, making business plans, and learning the best practices for second businesses of their choice.

Project Results to Date

The General Population. At the start of the project, 767 farmers from 191 communities defined 28 practices they needed to adopt in order to graduate from poverty — 8 for increasing productivity, 7 for husking coffee for a higher price, 7 for conserving their mountainside land, and 6 for making better business decisions. Attachment 1 is a detailed list of all 28 practices.

Our local partners, municipal officials and primary school teachers, teach and promote the practices.  However, with Covid meetings with farmers were suspended, schools were closed, and the increases in both knowledge and adoption leveled off.  In early 2022 municipal meetings with farmers resumed and schools reopened and regular promotion of the practices started again.  As such, knowledge and adoption of the practices are beginning to climb again.

2023 Results Table - General Population

Early-Adopter Communities.  The increases in productivity, price, and income are divided into three groups: (I) 40 original communities in the municipalities of San Cristóbal and Carchá; (II) 21 original communities in the municipality of Cobán; and (II) 60 new communities in all three municipalities.  All three groups had good to excellent increases in productivity.  But the fall in coffee prices and extremely modest increases in husking took a toll on their income.   The baseline productivity for all farmers was 1.73 per 1/9th of an acre, husking was 0%, and income $106 per year from coffee.

2023 Results Table - Early Adopters

Conservation is the percentage of land on which farmers apply all seven mountainside conservation practices. The early-adopter farmers can conserve 1,500 acres of mountainside farmland, and they are now conserving 929 acres.

HELPING WOMEN ACHIEVE PERSONAL AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

For 4 years the women of Alta Verapaz have been setting personal goals and solving common problems, increasing their empowerment as well as their public speaking, and becoming leaders and more effective members of their communities. They also have made business plans, learnt the best practices for the businesses of their choice, and built successful businesses.  Their business growth and personal growth encourage and reinforce each other, and together they increase women’s equality.

The Need

Some women had two or three years of primary school, but most had none. Many of the women do not speak Spanish, and all assistance is provided in Poqomchi or K’ekchi, the two Mayan languages spoken in Alta Verapaz.

Church leaders use Bible passages to tell women that the man is head of the family and they should submit to their husbands. Men tend to dominate the public speaking, decision-making, and any opportunity for technical assistance because they have more education, speak Spanish, have traveled to the cities and nearby Honduras, and are simply accustomed to dealing with organizations from outside the community.

The women bear more responsibility than men for raising children, and they cannot leave and take their children with them to look for a job in the city. There is little to no salaried labor in rural communities, and their best opportunity for a career and income is a family-farm enterprise.

Project Activities

In 2023, SID will fCoffee Tree Nursery ocus the women’s program on savings and loans associations and their second businesses.  SID will help women in 121 communities to operate a savings and loan association, which includes performing all the operations for achieving financial literacy.  For the business portion of the program we will use small group meetings in which the women running each type of business will discuss ways in which they can increase their gross income, reduce their cash costs, and solve any problem that is pertinent to their business.

Project Results to Date

Increases in Personal Growth.  Results are divided into two groups: the 824 women in 61 original communities, and the 1,145 women in the 60 new communities.  At the end of 2022, the women evaluated their personal growth in six areas: capacity to speak in public; confidence to speak in public; empowerment; leadership; equal participation in the technical assistance in coffee; and equal participation in building a coffee-producing business.  The women in the 61 original are reaching full capacity, confidence, and equal participation.  The women in the new communities are also making great strides. 

2023 Results Table - Women

EWomen making business plans vidence of Increases in Leadership and More Effective Membership in Communities.  When the women were asked for indicators of their increases in leadership, they reported becoming leaders in their churches, savings groups, and parent-teacher associations.  Some reported becoming members of their male-dominated community development councils; and nearly all report voicing their opinions in public meetings. 

Increases in Income from Second Businesses.  Nearly all women have a second business, and in 2022 they made major increases in income from these businesses. The average earnings per businesses of the 824 women from the original 61 communities went from $183 to $586. The average earnings per businesses of the 1,145 women from the 60 new communities went from $127 to $502.

First Project: 2004 to 2006

Strategies for International Development (SID) began its first project in Guatemala in Northern Chimaltenango, the first of the Western Highland departments. We helped 600 farm families in the municipalities of Comalapa and San Martin find new buyers for their cash crops, make business plans, reclaim their hillside land, and increase their productivity and income. In 2005, SID expanded the program to another 600 families in 25 communities in the nearby municipality of Poaquil.

Farmers found new buyers for cash crops such as eggs, amaranth, coffee, artisanal weaving, and lemons. They made business plans, and they reclaimed and conserved their land by planting trees in the upper reaches of their watersheds and constructing slow-formation terraces on their farmland. They increased their productivity in corn by 22% and their productivity in beans by 16% percent. Coffee farmers increased their productivity by 62%, from 4.78 to 7.69 quintals per 1/4 acre (a quintal is equal to 100 pounds). All together, the farmers increased their sale of cash crops and their average annual income increased 116 percent, from $321 to $692.

A Focus on Coffee: 2007 to 2011

In 2007, SID changed the program to focus exclusively on coffee because coffee is the major cash crop in the region, and it offers the best opportunity for helping farmers make the full transition from subsistence to commercial farming. Most of the farmland is on mountainsides, and coffee is the ideal cash crop because the trees help hold the soil.

SID began the program with 1,044 coffee-farming families in 35 communities in the municipalities of Poaquil, Comalapa, and Jilotepeque. At the outset of the program, the farmers averaged 5 quintals of coffee (500 pounds) per 1/4 acre. They did not husk their coffee, and their average annual income from coffee was $131.

Every year we helped them meet and negotiate with exporters, assess their alternatives, make business plans, and improve their business decisions. During the remainder of the dry season and rainy season from April to November, we helped them increase their productivity by shading and pruning their trees and fertilizing them at least three times during the rainy season. We also helped them terrace their land and soil erosion on their hillside land. During the harvest season from December to March, we helped them husk and dry their coffee and sell it directly to exporters to gain a much higher price.

Every year, new farmers joined the program, and every year the old and new farmers increased their average productivity, husking and sales to exporters, and income. In the 2011/12 coffee year from April 2011 to March 2012, the 2,100 farm families in the program increased their productivity from 15.63 quintals per 1/4 acre to 17.66 quintals, husked and sold 50% of their coffee directly to exporters, and increased their average income from coffee to $1,058 a year.

Combating Coffee Leaf Rust: 2012 to 2014

In latter 2012, a severe attack of leaf rust swept through Central America.  The leaf rust is an airborne, rust-colored fungus that attaches itself to the underside of the leaves of coffee trees and reduces photosynthesis and the growth of the leaves, coffee blossoms, and fruit. In the 2012/13 coffee year (April 2012 to March 2013), productivity fell by 13%. Most of the coffee was too small to husk, and husking fell to 7%. Average income fell by half, from $1,058 to $520.

In response, SID nearly doubled the number of families in the project and focused on helping them combat the leaf rust. We helped 4,402 farm families spray their coffee trees with copper sulfate and lime to kill the leaf rust. They also sprayed their trees with an anti-fungal, and they replaced severely infected trees with new coffee seedlings. In addition, they pruned their shade and coffee trees more aggressively to reduce the humidity in their coffee plots.

The famers gradually controlled the leaf rust, and in the 2013/14 coffee year they returned their productivity to 15 quintals per 1/4 acre, increased their husking and sales directly to exporters to 30% of their harvest, and they regained most of the income they had lost to the leaf rust by achieving an average income of $793.

Graduation in Chimaltenango, New Region in Alta Verapaz: 2015

In March 2016, SID graduated a third of the farmers from the project in Northern Chimaltenango and began a new project with coffee farmers in the Department of Alta Verapaz. For more information on this project, please go to Current Program.