Idalia and Donaldo have been ”test pilots” in the project when it began a couple of years ago. Idalia and later her husband were the first persons in the village to receive training and help to change and diversify their crops, learn new cultivation methods and plant fruit trees, coffee bushes, pineapples, guyaba and establish a kitchen garden with herbs and vegetables.
In addition, the project introduced micro-credit, a kind of “village bank”. Idalia borrowed some money to start her small shop where she sells toothpaste, sugar, salt, paper, soap, drugs and oil. For the loan she bought a refrigerator and some basic goods for the shop, and by now the loan has been paid back.
Idalia and Donaldo own a small plot of land around their house. Before, the land was lying fallow a large part of the year, if they did not grow maize during the winter season. At the same time they had to rent another plot of land somewhere else to grow more maize, as their own plot could not yield enough to feed the family with this stable food the whole year.
Hard work – great output
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| Idalia Orellana |
While darkness still envelops the mountains Idalia Orellana gets up. She gets up every morning at 4 o’clock before the morning sun conquers the dark sky. Then she begins preparing breakfast to her husband, who is going to work in the farm, and to their three kids who are leaving for school. Breakfast is coffee and tortillas.
Typically it takes Idalia 2-3 hours to produce the stack of tortillas (maize pancakes) and boiled beans – the basic food of the family.
When children and husband are off, Idalia begins her work in the house, in the shop and on the small plot of land at the back of the house, where a biogas system has to be “fed” with cow dung that Idalia mixes with water before she pours it down into the primitive system.
| Maze |
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| Maize is the stable food in the whole of Central America and is used among others to make flour for the tortillas (small pancakes) and bread. |
A new type of biogas system is on its way. Idalia hopes it can ease her work and reduce the stench of cow dung and other organic waste that is composting in the biogas system. When the new biogas system is working at full power she is convinced that it will make her cooking easier, as she can cook on gas instead of having to fetch and cut firewood for the cooking.
Thriving kitchen gardens and different crops
”But the biggest difference is that before the project our land was lying fallow for many months every year, and we had only a couple of old mango trees and other fruit trees. The maize was not sufficient at all, and everything was very bleak. Some years the heavy rain destroyed the crops, and my husband had to leave and work as day labourer with the big farmers or in the coffee harvest, so that we had some money to buy maize and other food stuffs,” tells Idalia.
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| There is grown coffee, tangerines, pineapples and bananas. |
She is proud of the family’s thriving kitchen garden and the plot of land. Both her husband and the children have helped with the planting. Now we grow coffee, tangerines, pineapples and bananas. And we have even been able to give the neighbours cuttings from the banana trees,” tells Idalia.
She is looking forward to their coffee harvest. This year they can probably harvest several kilos more because of improved cultivating methods.
The income from their shop and the sale of surplus vegetables and coffee mean that Idalia and Donaldo are planning to buy another small piece of land. They are negotiating with the neighbour about it, as it is situated right next to their kitchen garden.
In the long term they dream of letting their oldest son go to high school. It costs money as he has to live and study outside the village. The family also dreams of saving money to buy a second-hand pick-up for transport of vegetables and fruits to the market and purchases for the shop from the city of Tomalà to which it takes one hour to walk.
By Signe Asbirk