i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

The Nicaraguan Rural Development Institute (IDR) conducted a development
project that distributed Valencia orange saplings to member farmers of the Corcasan
cooperative. Danilo received 150 saplings. The purpose of this program was to give
farmers additional income from oranges grown on their farms. However, another Las
Grietas farmer, Eliazar Romero, explained: “El naranjo es muy caliente. No refresca el
cafeto. La sombra que ofrece es muy oscura. Es bueno tener el cítrico, pero yo no tengo
donde sembrarlo (The orange tree is too hot. It doesn’t cool off the coffee. Its shade is
too dark. It’s nice to have citrus [trees] but I don’t have anywhere to plant them).
Eliazar’s point speaks to the tendency of development efforts to be misapplied.
He has no use for these orange trees because he cannot sacrifice area planted in coffee for
a lesser-value crop, nor can he intersperse them in his coffee fields. The development
officials might do better by asking locals what types of plants they would prefer to
intersperse with the coffee plants. Thus, the IDR program, although well-intentioned,
essentially wasted money and time.
Danilo, on the other hand, took advantage of the orange tree program to plant 150
trees on unused tracts in a low section of his farm. It was nice to be able to pick fresh
Valencia oranges in season. Danilo typically contracts with a buyer to pick and transport
the fruit from the farm. He admits, “No rinde mucha plata, pero es otro ingreso para la
finca (It doesn’t earn much, but it’s more revenue for the farm).”
Farmers need to prune shade trees, especially during the off-season, in order to
manage the amount of shade the trees provide. Other beneficial practices include planting
rows of coffee along contour lines and digging terraces for the individual plants. These
practices control the flow of water and limit runoff and topsoil erosion during the
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