Extreme conditions in Central America are leading to food insecurity and lack of employment, which in some cases, causes youth to flee the region, seeking work elsewhere.
The dry corridor has been affected by climate change and during the dry season, crops grown on the land can shrivel, causing many young men to leave to find work elsewhere.
During the rainy season, hurricanes that cause flooding, affect passability of highways and access to agricultural regions, which affects the supply chain and increases prices, in addition to increasing unemployment, in remote areas of Guatemala.
A solution is having remote villages grow their own food, but flooding has created the necessity for innovative and strategic solutions, such as greenhouse farming in elevated areas.
In March 2022, Sowing Opportunities is bringing an expert agricultural engineer to the village of Chajmaic, Guatemala to do this work with the people, in conjunction with results of a needs assessment. Details of this upcoming journey are at this link.
Sowing Opportunities’ expert agricultural engineer, Federico Arriola Cuéllar, has a PhD and 40+ years of experience, including specialized training in Israel, and multiple examples of proven success and quick results. Federico has created a replicable and functional model that has been validated in all microclimates and altitudes of Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras.
Federico’s model includes “substrates, nutrients, water resources and fertilization of plants among others, which in a correct combination has the capacity to raise up to 1000% the ordinary annual production of the most important crops.” (Source: Federico’s document “Prog. para Erradicar la Desnutricion Ciclilca en Guatemala y el Mundo”)
Sowing Opportunities’ agricultural engineer, Federico’s model “is aligned with 6 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, systematically combining a series of methodologies (The greenhouse concept, organoponics, Spanish plasticiculture, Israeli drip irrigation and Brazilian nutrition) seeking low-cost application and using local resources from wherever it is situated, respecting the food preferences of each family to meet the objective that anyone can carry it out.” According to Federico, this system “allows the production of any product in any season. This means that it is possible to meet market demands all year round, regardless of climatic factors.”
