Finding Food Security

Most poor subsistence farmers live under a burden of constant vulnerability and uncertainty because they are dependent on a small number of rainfed crops grown with expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides.  We saw the hard reality of rural poverty in October of last year, when many farmers in the communities where Nuevas Esperanzas works lost the majority of their bean crop.  Many were forced to sell off their assets, leave the community for work, and have been living on meager diets for the last six months.

To help bring more security to these families, Nuevas Esperanzas has been showing farmers how to grow a greater variety of crops, in order to spread out the risk if one crop is lost.  We have also been teaching farmers new techniques to maximize the land, water and other resources they already have available to them, so that they can grow more food and take on less debt.  The results of the most recent family gardens project have been hopeful: the gardens are helping to lighten the impact of last year's crop loss, crops to help with diversification are being identified, and farmers are experimenting with new techniques that will make their farms more resilient.

If you are interested in reading more about why poor farmers have a hard time growing enough food to eat and what can be done to help, read the full review of Nuevas Esperanzas' latest family gardens project.