Nicaragua

Small-Scale Farmer Income and Employment Project

Project Spotlight Farmer Delores Tablada and NCBA Agribusiness Manager Reinaldo Diaz in Tablada's organic watermelon field. Nicaraguan Co-ops Seek Growing Markets Full Story PDF

Project goal: To increase the incomes of small farmers and their families.

Funding: U.S. Agency for International Development - $5,540,900

Time frame: July 1999 - June 2006
*CLUSA involvement in Nicaragua continued until 2006 with funding from its worldwide. Cooperative Development Program.

Project is now complete.

Project inception: 1994

The Project
NCBA's CLUSA International Program worked in Nicaragua to increase the incomes of small farmers and their families, and increase employment opportunities by:

• increasing and improving the production and marketing by small farmers, their cooperatives and production groups of non-traditional cash crops, including organic coffee, fruits and vegetables;
• strengthening existing and developing new linkages between producers and processors, exporters and brokers;
• strengthening cooperative and producer business management abilities; and
• identifying new business opportunities in which small farmers can participate.

The program was designed to extend and expand the work undertaken during NCBA's Broad-Based Non-Traditional Agricultural (NTA) Pilot Project in the country. A new emphasis of the program is assisting in the formation of new, and restructuring of existing small farmer-owned businesses. These businesses often begin small and are locally focused on farmers' immediate needs. NCBA helps grow them into regional or national entities that provide the necessary competitive and quality services for their farmer owners.

Professional management plays a key role in the sustainability of these proposed businesses. NCBA's CLUSA International staff work as mentors and trainers.

Methods
NCBA's CLUSA International Program uses a market driven, highly focused, small- farmer oriented, "learn-by-doing" approach to technology transfer and training. The implementation of this project was based on five principles:

Increased Incomes
With increased income, small-scale farmers will have the resources to purchase supplies for their families, gain improved self-esteem, and have a greater ability to be involved in the production process. Farmers participating in the project wanted to learn and improve their production and business methods. And their hope for leaving poverty behind grew as they gained a solid base of experience, increased their earnings, and obtained improved access to services.

Begin at the Farmer-Level
The "CLUSA Approach" begins with the farmers. We worked directly with them to help improve their production practices, understanding of technology and business organization, and their educational levels.

Farmers Make Decisions
The "CLUSA Approach" requires involving farmers in all phases of the production and business decision-making process through democratic and participatory means. Farmers must learn how to make decisions. To do that, they must participate in all the business decisions: organizational structure, business agreements, contract negotiations, subcontracts, and liquidations.

Democratic Management
The "CLUSA Approach" promotes business transparency. Unless the growers understand what their production and marketing costs are, they cannot make good sales decisions and understand their own returns and earnings. For groups who have been totally dependent on intermediaries, this transparency is critical to successful and sustainable marketing linkages after NCBA's project has ended. Through transparent negotiations farmers can relate sales prices to production costs.

Politically Neutral
NCBA's CLUSA International staff develop and maintain productive relationships with all relevant farmer-oriented organizations. At the same time, however, NCBA maintains an independent and non-partisan, political position. We strive to be inclusive. NCBA works to get various farmer groups to work together in their mutual economic interests, regardless of political affiliation. It is important that the project not be associated with or perceived as associated with any political movement.

Results
The average quarterly increases in net income of farmers participating in the project are running well over 100 percent. Products sold include certified organic products, including coffee, sesame, cacao, soybeans, strawberry, vegetables, as well as conventional cacao, soybeans and watermelon. 2,691 farmers, (84 percent of the projected goal) had adopted environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. 33,648 farmers (647 percent of the projected goal) had participated in training events.

NCBA has helped develop a "Small Farmer" brand for high-quality organic fruits and vegetables. With help from NCBA, CLUSA de Nicaragua - an independent, local NGO that NCBA helped form - opened an open-air market in Managua where small-farmer branded products are sold. Local restaurants, embassies and other institutions also buy small-farmer branded organic produce. Farmers are evaluating opportunities to open additional markets in other Nicaraguan cities.

NCBA has helped the farmer cooperatives develop linkages with U.S. food buyers and trade associations, including the Specialty Coffee Association and the Produce Marketing Association. U.S. natural food retail cooperatives are buying small-farmer branded coffee direct and selling it in their retail stores on a pilot basis. The food co-ops are planning to host Nicaraguan producers in a learning-visit to their stores, where farmers will learn more about food retailing-information they'll need to operate the small farmer market in Managua.

By the end of the project, NCBA's expected achievements were:

• a minimum of 50 percent increase in net income of farmers participating in the project;
• creation of 2,000-full time rural jobs;
• a minimum of 200 profitable crop enterprises; and
• gross sales of $7.2 million in small-producer crops.

NCBA also anticipates secondary results such as increased hectares of production, increased hectares under environmentally sustainable production practices, an increased number of direct beneficiaries, and the formation of new Natural Resource boards.

• National per capita annual income: $400
• Annual growth rate (2001 est.): 2.5 percent
• Agriculture: coffee, sugar, rice, corn, beans, meat, bananas, tobacco and sesame
• Major imports: petroleum, agricultural supplies, and manufactured goods

• Population (2001 est.): 4.91 million
• Population annual growth rate (2001 est.): 2.15 percent
• Languages: Spanish (official), English, indigenous languages
• Literacy rate: 75 percent

• Location: Central America
• Area: 50,446 square miles (about the size of New York State)
• Capital: Managua