Strategies for International Development (SID)
Education, Opportunity
Location: Washington, DC / Luweero District, Uganda, and Guatemala
Co-sponsors: Kirk Renaud and Emily Puente
SID: Grantee in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022-23
SID designs, applies and promotes better methods for helping small farmers in Guatemala, Peru, and Bolivia transition from subsistence to successful commercial farming. SID’s program is built on the following principles that help poor farmers conserve land and increase productivity and income:
- The three co-equal goals of all SID projects are graduation from poverty, reclaiming eroded land, and ensuring the equal participation of women. These goals are reached by helping farmers learn about and implement best business practices and farming methods.
- Demonstration fairs showcase the best business and farming practices so that farmers can see and try their hand at the practices and fully understand the various methods available.
- New and improved farming methods are selected and adopted by the farmers themselves to ensure buy-in, and farmers evaluate their results at the end of each harvest cycle.
- Skilled farmers, as well as trained agronomists, serve as project staff, providing agriculture extension training where none has been available.
For more information, see: https://sidworld.org/
GRANT SUMMARY AND PURPOSE
2019: $25,000 helped fund the first year of SID’s 3 year program comprised of four components to be used in the poorest coffee-farming area of Guatemala.
- Local officials, teachers, and radio stations teach, promote and encourage the adoption of the practices farmers need to use in order to graduate from poverty with coffee farming.
- Demonstration fairs in multiple locations help farmers see and try their hand at the practices.
- Provision of technical assistance to early-adopter communities that agree to adopt all the practices.
- Additional assistance to women to set personal goals, solve common problems and make business plans in order to increase their empowerment and equal participation in developing coffee and other businesses.
2020: $30,000 helped SID expand the 3-year project by expanding into the Municipality of Coban to present the program to over 7,000 more farm families, with goals of acceptance similar to those in San Cristobal and Carcha in 2019.
2021: $30,000 continues the steady progress of the 3-year project that has resulted in significant increases in almost all their metrics, including increases in average annual incomes. 18,380 coffee-farming families in a new region will be served, and of those, 75% (13,785) will learn best practices, 38% will adopt at least 2 best practices, and 16% will adopt all practices and triple their income.
2022-23: $30,000 will be used in Uganda to implement SID’s program that focuses on women to help them improve their public speaking and leadership skills, participate more equally in building the family-farm enterprise and start a business of their own. Experienced social worker facilitators will help women in rural villages set and achieve personal goals, identify and solve common problems, develop business plans and learn best practices for their chosen secondary business. In addition, a grant of $2,883 in unrestricted funding has been awarded to support this mission.
IMPACT
Practical hands-on learning and continued technical support for the farmers increase their efficiency and production. Empowering women by teaching them best practices for second businesses provides them with income. Together, these increase the standard of living for coffee farmers and their families in Central America and Africa.
