télécharger - Agriterra

Nicaragua is located in Central America, in betweenHonduras and Costa Rica. After Haiti, Nicaraguais the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Onequarter of the population is illiterate. Agriculture, cattlebreeding and the processing of agricultural productsare the country’s main economic activities. The primaryexport products include: coffee, fish, meat and sugar.An award-winningpartnershipProgramme Council NicaraguaMy name is Etienne Bayardo. I work for the Nicaraguan agriculturalorganisation UNAG. At Agriterra’s request, I approached severalpeople to ask them how they feel about our cooperation withAgriterra. The cooperation between Agriterra and UNAG (UniónNacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos) started in 1999. At thetime, the main focus was on support and advice for a number ofspecific agricultural projects. Meanwhile, the focus has shiftedand the cooperation is increasingly aimed at the reinforcementof the agricultural organisation, the development of sustainableproduction systems for cattle, equal opportunities for men andwomen, and production. All those evolutions revolve around theexchange of technical know-how and the advice of experts fromAgriterra and the agricultural organisations. LTO (the Dutch Farmers’Association), ZijActief (women’s movement from the Netherlands),NAJK (the Dutch Agricultural Youth Organisation) and Rabobankwere all part of the Programme Council Nicaragua and participatedin several activities which allowed them to pass on theirknow-how, experience and support, which are all invaluable tothe men, women and young farmers who have joined in UNAG.Evir Amador is a young farmer and the national coordinator ofthe agricultural youth within UNAG. He is proud to tell us thatAgriterra’s contribution in the province of Chontales has resultedin the establishment of 21 groups of young farmers in ten cities,with a total of 272 organised young farmers. That reinforcementof young farmers in Chontales has now led to a proposal fordirect cooperation in next year’s budget. The NAJK and theyoungsters division from Chontales visit each other in order toexchange experiences. Those exchanges are aimed at thespecific problems encountered by small young producers fromUNAG-Chontales, problems concerning company administration,property, and subjects related to production. Together, they seekto improve the production activities and the standard of living ofthose young producers. According to Mr Amador, the exchangeof experiences with NAJK has resulted in the request for bettertechnical information. The young farmers are currently preparingfor Nicaragua’s accession to the Central America Free TradeAgreement (CAFTA).Rural women also find it important to cooperate, e.g. in the fieldof training or credits. Cristina Espinoza, rural woman in the townof El Coral, puts it this way: "We received micro credits fromZijActief, which were used to implement several changes, suchas the construction of production infrastructure. Three yearslater, we have received over 8,000 dollars, and that moneyhas been used to finance a group of eight women from ourcommunity. These women now belong to a dairy cooperativesociety that sells milk. That is a good example of how oureconomic activities have been stimulated. The training that wereceived has also improved us, our self-esteem and, indirectly,our environment".Douglas Alemán Benavides,president of UNAG Chontalesand secretary of UNAG’snational ExecutiveCommittee, considers thecooperation as "Open and successful. It has enabled us toreorganise. We now have a solid strategic plan with objectivesthat have been set for five years and a method to meet thoseobjectives. From this plan, Agriterra lifted some aspects which itsupports both technically and financially". Ariel Bucardo, vicepresident of UNAG’s national Executive Committee, continues:"It is always interesting to know how we are perceived and toreceive critical remarks. It keeps us alert and initiates the debateabout problems that we need to solve".According to Mr Alemán, some of the goals that have been‘The cooperationshows visible results.’reached over the past few years were uniformity in productionmethods and the debate regarding experiences from the exchangeprogramme between Chontales and other departmentsin Nicaragua. That initiative resulted in an integrated vision ofUNAG as an organisation. But more has been achieved, such asthe organisation of a subgroup for stockbreeding, or the recognitionof UNAG Chontales bySNV as the second organisationto draw attention to thepeople of Chontales. We alsorealised a production of10,000 gallons of hygienicallyproduced milk, and 500 cattle farms switched over to sustainableproduction methods.Of course he thinks that UNAG does not receive enough funding,based on the capacity and size of UNAG. But he also refers tothe award "Partnership of the Year" that the ProgrammeCouncil Nicaragua received during the celebration of Agriterra’sfirst lustrum in June 2003. In an Internet poll that was held beforethe celebration, Dutch farmers preferred the Programme Councilto two other nominees. All nominees were part of cooperation >>1617