NIcaragua, a great place to discover

In 2013, I finally got to Managua, Nicaragua  after waiting for many months for a firm date from my sponsor, Partners of the Americas.  I was supposed to be picked up  by  Elisa Estrada, a Partners employee in Nicaragua.  Elisa is my companion, driver, and translator for my three weeks here.  She wasn't there but  a man name Roberto was standing just outside  the customs clearance area with a placard that read "Linda De Haynes".  I felt that was rather close  to my name so I asked  him who he was  and where he was supposed to take me.  After an answer that didn't make sense,  I asked him a few more to assure myself  he wasn't kidnapping me and decided to let him  take my luggage in his van.  Elisa and I did meet later at the hotel and  reviewed my itinerary... The project  has some very great experiences in store for me ---I will be helping some cheese makers,  organic growers and  seed producers develop their Business  and Marketing Plans .  It promises to be a memorable assignment... I had forgotten how much fun this work can be!  ... and I love my new name:  "Linda De Haynes"  (formerly known as Linda D. Aines)

During a few days of orientation in Managua, I took some time to check out the food markets and find the price of food here is as high as in the US.  Even beans and rice here which is the local staple is very high.  Yet wages here are at most $5 a day for the average worker.  It is hard to conceive how Nicaraguans manage. Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, but it is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (after Haiti).  Unemployment in the rural sector is 38,05% according to the Población Económicamente Activa (PEA).  Thirty four (34%) of the rural population is under paid and the minimum wage only supports 35-50% of the basic food needs.

My first assignment is to spend 3 days with  Leonardo  (he is a Nicaraguan American and former NY City construction  exec. ) He  now lives in Matagualpa, Nicaragua with his parents and also his wife who is about to give birth.  My task is to help Leo complete s business plan as he is starting an artisanal cheese making project, in addition to operating a small farm.     He is a new breed of farmers here,  full of energy and excitement about making inroads into a new type of ecological and sustainable farming.  He is growing a heard of dairy cows and plans to make artisanal cheeses such as Gouda, Eden cheese and also Camembert and perhaps Gruyere cheeses.  We determined he has more demand for his cheese than he can supply  but  he will be making very little money for all the work he is putting in all year… so he has decisions to make. At the moment, his supply of milk is low and he is working at increasing the output and quality of milk by his cows. He is working at reforesting his farm and  putting in a lot of protein rich forage that will improve the feed he gives his heard. Reforestation is now a major government program and they are donating seeds and inputs to provide incentives.  Reforestation is also promoted for the farm fields where cattle roam as it can provide shade for the animals. It can also promote growth of native plants with high protein content that improve soil (filter nitrogen) and provide good forage food for animals and provide protection of local watersheds and creeks. 

  He is also a town leader around here and like to get involved in training people in new ways to do things… He will be interesting to watch.  As  he showed me his small farm yesterday, where he is developing some new ways to feed his cows, creating new sustainable methods of getting new feed for his cow and increasing the protein value of his feed by return his land to original plant growth.  It is also  where he is building his cheese making factory,  so he is increasing the milk production of his herd.   I became aware of a neat waterfall on his property and the fact that his property is riddled with gold tunnels underneath—the whole town has them.  He is also sitting on top of several old gold mines. I ended up showing him how to pan for gold.  No one around there knows how to do that.  So he was elated to have the chance to learn.   You never know what you will end up teaching people around here  Every knowledge you have becomes a valuable asset.

I am in the middle of  the country’s coffee growing country.  Most farms in this region grow coffee and right now, they are harvesting and drying the coffee which is spread on large tarps along the side of the road.  I took great pictures of the coffee farms when  traveling to this town.  Today,  Leo’s mother took me around town to some of the great coffee shops in town.  That was to make up for my being offered  instant coffee yesterday at my hotel’s restaurant.  I was stunned,  as I had so been looking forward to some great coffees with my breakfast and lunch.  Café con leche made with Presto, the local instant coffee…  is the most awful tasting stuff!  especially when staying in the middle of one of the greatest coffee growing areas in Central America.

After my few days with Leo and his family,  I spend a weekend at the Selva Negra Eco Lodge in the mountains of Nicaragua which is also a Coffee Plantation.  My host is treating me to a few days rest at this great place with hiking trails , educational programs,  lots of wild life wandering around the resort  also ponds and ducks… but it is cold and I didn’t bring sweaters.  But this place is amazing with 1500 acres and grow everything they need for the Lodge, themselves, their thousands of employees and seasonal workers who come in for various parts of the growing season and to run the lodge and serve the owners… all is done organically and in a sustainable farming method  that would be the envy of the US growers.  The hiking trails , ponds,  around here leave you speechless.  I’ve just taken a tour of part of the working farm  ( a big part of it is just for preservation).  I could spend days hiking this place and never have enough. 

I am drinking their wonderful coffee as I write this. It is nice black coffee  but  I don’t like it as much as I have liked other coffee… here they use the Arabic coffee beans or plants.  It may also be how they cook it.  Although I have enjoyed some really nice cappuccinos here.  I am at the Eco Lodge/Coffee Plantation for the weekend  and it is a beautiful place in the mountains but very cold here too.  At night the wind howls so I am wearing layers of whatever I came with which didn’t include sweaters.   This place produces everything they need to live and make it a practice to be a model for sustainable farming.  It serves as model farm for all others.  More like a hunting lodge in terms of style.   Their main product is the coffee their produce. ^{But their second  best}  product is tourism.  The coffee industry here was started by 7-8 German Farmers who migrated here in the early 1900s  .  this place is one of the original farms and is now  owned by one of their grandchildren.  I am taking lost of pictures.  They also provide work for some 800 migrants who come here to pick the coffee beans for about 4 month of the year.  They provide lodging, food, and pay them quite well.  They also have a clinic (medical care) on the grounds and an MD who is here 6 days a week.  They also produce  all the meat ( poultry, beef ) eggs and fruits and vegetable, all they need to live for them, their guests, and their staff.  They even have a cheese making facility  and produce their own Camembert, Feta, Gouda, Edam,  and many other kinds of cheese.  Even wild animals are encouraged to come on the farm and integrate, and use what is in the plants for them… I am told none of them are dangerous.  Most are small , even the  wild cats.  I haven’t seen any monkeys yet but they are here.

If you don’t want to do it alone, there are group nature hikes in the morning, farm tours and Coffee industry tours in the afternoon and for the very hardy, there are night-time hikes to see nature and wildlife at night.  The night hike is not for me as the wind is howling out there.  I will be happy to go get a beer and a piece of cheesecake and call it a night.

I took a great tour of the Farm /Coffee plantation 
this afternoon.  We are at an 850 ft above sea level in the mountains overlooking Matagalpa.  The coffee facility is very small for the acreage of coffee plants that they have.  The coffee has been almost fully harvested by now and it is getting laid out in fields over plastic tarps and being dried a readied for market.  Silva Negra (Black Forest) coffees are sold to Whole Foods in the US and a variety of other  high end supermarket chains.  Prior to this,  coffee goes through several washes to take out the outside skins.  Those skins are then put inside containers of red worms who eat and digest them.  The excrement is then put back on the ground of the new coffee that is now growing to fertilize the plants.  Everything on the Farm is re-used in some way for the next cycle, including the manure,  Manure is added to large tanks/ bio-digestor to create methane which heats and supplies energy to the farm.  Chicken droppings, likewise is used as fertilizer.  Leaves of various plants that are high in protein are ground up and used as a salad for cattle and livestock, increasing their health and the quality of their milk and meat.  Citronella is grown, mixed with water and used as insecticide spray for plants.

I visited another small Nicaragua town because Elisa, and I and a seed exchange consultant had been asked to help managers of a nursery, small farm and a school for disadvantaged kids. The school was founded by a US lady named Rachel Greenwood. The school has about 75 students , from age 4 through 18… All kids come from either the streets or homes with abusive parents. The school is the best thing they have experienced in their life, they are clothed, fed, loved and learn how to read , write , make a living. Rachel also owns the farm and I was there to help her do a business plan for the nursery she has on the farm and needs to expand. She needs more income to help fund more activities for the kids or take in more kids. As it is, 75% of the money needed for these projects come from Rachel’s own pockets. She is trying to work it so she can make the project more self-sustaining. She is getting past retirement age, and won’t be able to fund it forever. She may even be running out of money as the economy has taken its toll on her holdings and she is paying a lot of salaries and taking care of these kids. I also spent some time also in helping to find an Executive Director for her US foundation that can help her get more grants and funding. Everybody that is involved with this project, is so impressive -- but all are overworked and overwhelmed. When I left , Rachel told me that I or anyone else would be welcome to Nicaragua and help her out anytime. If we did, we have a free room at her farmhouse for providing some steady help. Well that is a small sampling of the type of experience I have here. After my stay in this region, i did use my resources to find her a farm volunteer to help her operate the farm and put her in touch with several candidates for Executive Directors.  

Helping women grow in the Dominican Republic

I was in the Dominican Republic in May and June 2010 for 3 weeks and wrote a blog so I could share my activities.  Somehow, events during the months that followed my DR assignment prevented me from taking time to publish my account of this fabulous assignment.  So here it is…  it is not as detailed as previous assignments but it a summary of my 18 memorable days in the DR.  Many thanks go to Juan Pilar for his great help in guiding and assisting me, even taking on the Spanish training, for this assignment. 

My assignment involved visits to many greenhouses in the greater San Jose de Ocoa, Padre Las Casas and Jarabacoa areas as well as meeting with the NGOs and technicians servicing these greenhouse businesses.  During the past 5 years, there have been several initiatives to grant greenhouses to groups of women as a rural development/job creation effort.  Most greenhouses owned by the women are smaller than most, and have been organized in collectives where there are 3-8 women owners.  It is a difficult to make a profit.  In addition, the women lack education on business, credit, marketing, as well as production issues.  Transportation is a major challenge for those in the rural areas.

There is a lot of hillside growing here and it makes for a beautiful landscape. I am here to:

1) develop long term marketing strategies for vegetables produced in green houses.
2) Identify and recommend successful practices to develop market linkages at local and international levels.
3) Provide training to farmers and technicians.June 12, 2010: "I have now been in the Dominican Republic for more than two weeks and still can’t get used to the high level of humidity here.   feet are swollen and I can’t see my ankles--- I assume it has to do with the humidity---I am retaining fluids somehow.   I am currently in Padre Las Casas,  staying in a 5-room hotel, the Al Mana,  which is the only hotel in town.  If I need a shower, I have a bucket with pitcher in a shower stall and I do have a bathroom.  I have been here almost 24 hours and we have had electricity for 15 minutes.  This is my second visit in two weeks to this little village is nestled in the mountains but also one of the areas of the DR which is known for choice agricultural land.  There is a lot of hillside growing here and it makes for a beautiful landscape."

Most are producing peppers which is believed to be the most profitable of greenhouse crops-- especially the colored bell peppers that are favored by exporters.  The demand for peppers is greater than the supply and greenhouses sell all their high quality production.  A Value Chain analysis was done with interviews of greenhouse owners, buyers, technicians and other elements of the chain as well as review of relevant literature. The greenhouse owners are struggling with lack of knowledge in production, credit, marketing, plant or soil disease but should be commented on their continuing tenacity and risk taking.  Most GH owner sell all but that 20% is substandard and  women in that area do not cook with pepper or eat vegetables.  Due to this, they find little opportunity to market in local villages. Women were picked for the greenhouse project because they want to work and be producers.  Buyers are provided by Sur Futuro, an NGO that tries to support greenhouse growers.  The women in the Sur Futuro program do not have to deal with marketing at this time… as buyers are guaranteed by SF.  Problems cited:  Expressed frustration with non-experienced workers putting up their greenhouse--there were problems with construction.  Transportation is a big problem here;  no road-- had to drive across a river and through river bed to get to some interior villages. 

As a picture emerged of their challenge, we developed workshops that would serve as the beginning of their learning process about marketing, and developed strategies for solving immediate problems and for continuing to gain the knowledge they need to continue to grow their business. The workshops were also targeted at Technicians as a “Train the Trainers” skill building exercise.  Workshops were given to 35 agricultural growers in Jarabacoa in conjunction with the Agricultural Fair on June 3-6.   Additional workshops/Instructions on marketing and writing a Marketing Plan were also presented in San Jose, Padre Las Casas to both growers and technicians.  And I had the great opportunity to meet with most businesses/and players along the value chain:  from the small roadside peddler, to the village level middlemen, or middle woman, that buy from the backyard growers and bring or send their combined goods to the larger wholesalers in Santo Domingo.  I’ve also met the larger wholesalers and even the large supermarket chains’ buyers.  All are quite anxious to do business with the growers, large and small. 

The trip was of great benefit and a great exercise to me as I focused on the task to be done and set out to meet the goals of this project.  I enjoyed working with Juan, who worked hard and guided me very effectively through the information gathering and delivery of programs that would be of greatest benefit to the Greenhouse owners.  I felt he also learned a lot in the process and duration of my assignment and feel confident that he will continue to pass on the information and training we developed to producers long after my trip.   I felt I was doing a “training of the trainers” in having the involvement of the technicians throughout our travels and during workshops but Juan was the best of the trainers that I trained.