El 5 de mayo de 2018, la Asociación para el Desarrollo Integral del Altiplano se estableció formalmente, y los agricultores de aguacate celebraron. “Hoy, estamos muy contentos de haber consolidado nuestro consorcio de ocho asociaciones de productores de diferentes municipios de Sololá”, explica Don Andrés, líder de la comunidad y agricultor de por vida. “Los agricultores de San Andrés Semetabaj y otras comunidades alrededor del Lago de Atitlán comenzaron a hablar sobre el cultivo de una nueva variedad de aguacate hace algún tiempo.
On 5 May 2018, the Association for Integrated Development of the Altiplano became formally established, and avocado farmers celebrated. “Today, we are so happy to have consolidated our consortium of eight producer associations from different municipalities in Sololá” explains Don Andrés, community leader and lifelong farmer. “Farmers from San Andrés Semetabaj and other communities around Lake Atitlán began to talk about growing a new variety of avocado some time ago. But since the CDAIS project came, so many things have changed.
“Before, people were not really interested” says Lionel Ozorio, president of the ATESCATEL seed cooperative, “but the CDAIS project has helped to bring people together and now we see much more buy-in.” This innovation partnership is building key functional capacities amongst producer associations, and now, bringing other stakeholders onboard to help improve nutritional security through innovative approaches in promoting a new bean variety with increased production potential and nutritional content.
“Thanks to the money I earn from producing organic vegetables, this helps with the costs of schooling my children. I also feed my family with healthy food, and don’t buy any vegetables at the market anymore” says Clarisse Ilboudo, a farmer in the Koubri women’s group, Kadiogo province, Burkina Faso. The Koubri women group is supported through ‘Bio SPG’, a national organic agriculture label based on a participatory guarantee system approach, supported by the CDAIS project as one its innovation niche partnership.
“I see mindset shifts being promoted by CDAIS says Gemechu Nemie, director of the Ethiopian Animal Feed Industry Association (EAFIA) and a key member of the livestock feed safety and quality innovation niche. And this is the sort of change that the CDAIS project is beginning to engender, as partners start to implement approaches that better promote innovation in agriculture, by inspiring small and simple personal revolutions… Ethiopia is one of eight CDAIS pilot countries, and within each, several ‘niches’ or ‘innovation partnerships’ have been selected.
For many years, rural women have been creating their own agri-food processing companies, that promote local agriculture by bringing to the market original foods in products that are accessible to urban populations. The aim of CDAIS is to support their development by strengthening their capacities to experiment and learn together, as well as to negotiate and make contracts with suppliers and traders. And Dakoupa in Bobo Dioulasso is one of many small family businesses supported by CDAIS through the women-led agri-food processing microenterprise innovation partnership.
En 1995, SOS Faim entamait une première collaboration avec la coopérative La Florida dans la ‘Selva Central’, forêt semi-tropicale du centre du Pérou. Cette coopérative de petits producteurs de café sortait d’une grave crise suite à la présence importante du mouvement Sentier Lumineux dans la région : plusieurs dirigeants avaient été assassinés et les infrastructures détruites. En phase de redynamisation, elle recherchait une garantie pour obtenir un crédit auprès d’une banque locale pour collecter la production de ses membres et la commercialiser de manière groupée.
“The empowerment of our organization was important, to realise our potential to access to finance, markets and to make bean cultivation more productive” expresses Moises Acosta, vice-president of the Honduran Seed Producers Network, “and the bean value chain is now being strengthened and made more sustainable.” He is one of the producers who CDAIS and partners work with in Olancho department, with results that are now being replicated across the country.
“Es importante el empoderamiento de la organización, conocer nuestro potencial para acceder a financiamientos y al mercado y lograr que el cultivo de frijol sea productivo.” expresa Moisés Acosta, vicepresidente de la Red de Productores Artesanales de Semilla de Honduras (Red Pash). “La cadena está siendo fortalecida para su sostenibilidad y relevo generacional”. Él es uno de los productores con los que CDAIS y sus socios trabajan en el departamento de Olancho, Honduras, con resultados que ahora se replican a nivel nacional.
“We first needed to know who we are, what we offer, and how to offer it,” says coffee farmer Denis Cortez. “We in the partnership organized ourselves, and now all get involved in working for the common good. We are more aware of the impacts of what we do, how to improve quality, and apply on our farms what we learn such as new processing methods.” He is one of thousands of producers that CDAIS and its partners are working with in western Honduras, with clear results.