Improving the Soil for the Children
Local partner ADIP is pleased with the progress of a particular community where so many of the families are putting into practice the conservation farming techniques they’ve been exposed to. A shining example is Zacarías.
Zacarías learned subsistence farming practices from his parents. As he married and became a father of seven, he continued working the land the way he’d been taught. He began noticing that the land he’d inherited was not, as he put it, as “strong” as it used to be. The yields were lower, and with a big family to feed he was very worried.
Like his parents before him, he also worked on a large local plantation. There, he learned that applying chemical fertilizers on maize and beans produced impressive harvests, so he started using them at home. Initially, the results were good, but then the problems of low yields and crop losses worsened on his farm. Since this was also happening on the plantations, they began shutting down, and he had to start looking for work in other parts of the country. So, when ADIP offered a sustainable agriculture program to area farmers, Zacarías was one of the first to participate in the meetings and training sessions. Learning that there were ways to recover his land and to farm without the excessive use of chemicals was eye-opening for him.
He was surprised that he had so much to learn, despite farming his whole life. “Before ADIP’s intervention I taught my children what my parents taught me. I thought it was all there was to know,” he says. Since that first meeting, he has enthusiastically adopted all the recommended soil conservation techniques on his farm. He practices crop diversification and rotation, plants fruit trees, and is committed to sustainable farming. He does it for his children, who will one day inherit his land.
Guatemala Valle del Polochic Program
Led by World Renew and Local Partner ADIP