Brendah Ndagire is from Uganda, East Africa. She currently serves as part of the MCC Colombia Seed program, working in Choco. This blog is part of our series on food security and climate change.
In February, 2017, Pastor Rutilio Rivas, the director of the Colombian Mennonite Brethren (MB) Church’s agriculture foundation – known in Spanish as the Foundacion Agropecuaria Tejiendo Esperanza (FAGROTES) in Chocó, along with other MCC supported partners and service workers from around Latin America participated in a food security and climate change encounter in Haiti, to learn about the impact of climate change and food security projects around the region.
Communities all over Latin America and the Caribbean are already feeling the impacts of climate change, from severe droughts to flooding. These impacts have direct results on food production and food security. The encounter was a rich time of sharing and discussion about the work being done by different partners to combat some of impacts of these changes. Days of discussion were alternated with field visits to projects run and supported by MCC Haiti.
The topic of climate change and food insecurity is of great relevance and concern to the department of Chocó, Colombia, where Pastor Rutilio Rivas is guiding FAGROTES to implement various food security projects such as cacao and rice production in the rural municipalities of the San Juan region, for both domestic consumption and sale.
Rice Production in the Rural Communities FAGROTES accompanies. Brendah Ndagire.
Over the years, the Chocó department has seen variations in climate, environmental damage and resulting food production and reduction. These changes have been mostly due to extensive deforestation in the region as a result of both illegal and legal mining by large mining corporations. In addition, there are illegal coca crops, the source plant for cocaine, grown at the expense of food production, due to the presence of illegal armed groups in the region. Both practices have resulted in the contamination of Choco’s natural resources, including rivers and land degradation due to the use of mercury in gold mining and the aerial fumigation of coca with glyphosate by the Colombian government, sponsored by the US, as part of its war on drugs. Additionally, in October of 2016, Choco suffered floods that affected more than 20,000 people in the region, including communities where FAGROTES is working.
Given that backdrop, the FAGROTES team anticipates that in working with rural farmers to grow cacao and/or rice, it will restore not just peace, food production, or preserve the livelihoods of people, but also conserve the environment by promoting good agricultural practices.
In recent years, FAGROTES has implemented cacao and rice projects as economic alternatives for the socio-economic stability for more than 80 farmers in the San Juan rural communities. These projects provide economic alternatives because the majority of the farmers FAGROTES works with, previously participated (involuntarily or voluntarily) in the growing of coca.
Rice harvesting at Fagrotes’ prototype farm in San Antonio, Choco. Brendah Ndagire.
I recently talked to Pastor Rutilio to learn about the significance of his trip to Haiti. Here is an interview with Pastor Rutilio about his experiences in Haiti, edited for clarity.
Rutilio Rivas (centre), learning about Haitian farming. Anna Vogt.
Pastor Rutilio (P.R), describe your experience in Haiti with MCC, especially in respect to climate change?
P.R: It was a learning experience to hear the various perspectives from other organizations and countries on climate change and food security. This provided me with excellent information about the negative effects of climate change on food production cycles and quality of life. These realities warn us that it is urgently necessary to take note of good agricultural practices and the use of natural resources in a way that contributes to the protection of the environment. I learnt that the Haitian context is very interesting and challenging at the same time. Haitians have lived and continue to live in very difficult conditions. In addition to a weak democratic and government system(s), many people live in conditions of extreme poverty. Recently Haiti has e been hit by the effects of climate change, but even so, they are strong people with a lot of faith and hope, and a large desire to change reality.
What lessons did you learn about food security?
P.R: One of the most important lessons has to do with the organizational capacity that Haitians have built, a strategy that has allowed them to survive so many problems. The regional experiences of food production, of farmers using practices to protect the environment all over Latin America and the Caribbean, constitute lessons that contribute to our local development processes.
In Choco, we have a wealth of water resources and natural resources that sometimes we do not value or employ well. This experience in Haiti has allowed me to value and seek strategies to better use the natural resources that we enjoy today with abundance.
I learned that the urgent need for environmental protection requires sustainable agricultural practices that care for the environment. Haitians place a production priority on basic crops that guarantee food for families. Their organizations are projected in this area, and have organized a systems of marketing their products – something we are trying to implement here in Choco.
Rice production in Haiti. Anna Vogt.
Where do you see the relevance of these lessons for Chocó and FAGROTES?
P.R: Firstly, the relevance of the organizational work we saw in Haiti, with the communities or producers that are part of our process. Secondly, the implementation of good agricultural production practices that conserve the environment, such as different agro-forestry systems, in order to guarantee food security for families and to avoid the deforestation of large areas for agricultural use.
Then, the need to continue implementing and innovating initiatives that guarantee food security for the population, such as the implementation of small scale production using, eggs, fish, chickens, pigs, as well as family home gardens to produce legumes and other basic daily products.
Haiti’s rice cultivation and its models of planting motivated me to continue thinking about how to support farmers in rice production, as the main food security product for Chocoanos in the short term. As we work to design a marketing model that guarantees a fair price for producers, this learning plan will be based on my visit.
Bringing people together from across the region provides spaces for critical thinking and reflection, learning from others in similar situations. Good agricultural practices such as organic farming, and reforestation can restore the environment as well as produce food to sustain those who are hungry in a community.
Group photo in Haiti. Anna Vogt.