Sustainable Harvest International is supporting rural families in Central America to adopt sustainable agricultural practices
Ermitaño González among his yuca and plantain, cultivated using sustainable agricultural methods. (Credit: SHI)
Ermitaño González is celebrating ten years of organic farming since completing Sustainable Harvest International (SHI)’s - a CA4SH partner organisation - transformative farmer training program in 2012. Where he previously struggled to make ends meet, he is now growing a wealth of diverse crops like plantains, cassava, yams, passion fruit, papaya, lemons, pears, guanabana, oranges, and more, providing nutritious foodand income for his family of five.
Ermitaño and his family in front of the composting latrine built during their transformative farmer training. (Credit: SHI)
Established in 1997, SHI is celebrating 25 years of farming for a just and sustainable future. Since its founding, SHI has had programs in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Through its programs in Central America, SHI provides sustainable, locally-relevant technical assistance and training to rural farming families.
SHI-Panama was established in 1998, and works in partnership with local universities, NGOs, Peace Corps Panama, and government agencies such as MiAmbiente.
SHI’s message is simple:
“Sustainable Harvest International was built on the fact that environmental degradation and rural poverty are unavoidably linked. That’s why the solution must also be linked.”
Empowering small scale farmers with the tools and skills to move away from traditional slash-and-burn agriculture is helping SHI achieve ambitious targets for reducing the effects of climate change, increasing global biodiversity, and supporting farmers’ long-term ability to grow crops. Their vision under the Million Farm Transformation programme is to:
transform 1 million small scale farms,
plant 1 billion trees,
sequester 18 million tonnes of CO2,
regenerate 8 million acres of land, and
achieve food security for 5 million people by 2030.
With communities at the centre of this transformation, folks like Ermitaño and his family undertake a multi-year, 5-phase program where they scale their skills as sustainable farmers, community leaders, and small business entrepreneurs.
Some of the techniques Ermitano learned during SHI’s program are the use of compost and field residue to promote soil health, agribusiness skills, and seed multiplication for subsequent planting seasons. With these methods, he has reduced the amount his family spends on farming inputs; for example, he now has 550 yam plants which he grew from seeds he conserved during his participation in the SHI program back in 2013.
Ermitaño in his pumpkin patch. (Credit: SHI)
The SHI farmer training program boasts a 91% rate of continuation of practices, years after the program ends. Seeing the way this has transformed their livelihoods, farmers really don’t need much encouragement to pass on the benefits to others as community leaders.
Since inception, SHI Panama has partnered with 560 farming families like the Gonzalez family and helped them implement 951 kitchen gardens and 772 wood-conserving stoves, plant 338,039 trees, and regenerate 5,343 acres of land in their local areas.
Soil health and food security are inextricably linked. By supporting farmers to transition to sustainable agriculture, organisations like SHI are safeguarding our biggest terrestrial carbon sink and closing in on their 2030 goal of achieving food security for 5 million people.
Ermitaño González and his family are putting a face to the enthusiasm and determination of rural people, the world over, who deserve support to make the switch.
