The World Sustainable Agriculture Association is an
association of autonomous organizations and like-minded
individuals joined together in 1991 for the purpose of
advancing sustainable food and farming systems.
The WSAA Newsletter, now being produced quarterly, may be
reproduced freely with credit to individual authors and WSAA.
It is posted here in three parts due to its length and for ease
of selecting articles of most interest. Views expressed are those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent the positions of
WSAA or its Associates. Subscriptions are available for $18/year
from the California office. Those wishing to exchange newsletters,
please contact the Washington Office, which houses a small but
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Office of the Executive Director
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Email: wsaala@igc.apc.org
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WSAA Washington
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WDC, 20004 USA
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Email: wsaa@igc.apc.org
WORLD SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
Dedicated to the well being of all people in harmony with Nature
VOLUME 3 NUMBER 13 SUMMER 1994
IN THIS ISSUE:
PART I
FOCUS ON FARMERS:
New Approaches to Agriculture in Central America and Mexico
REGIONAL FOCUS: Mexico and Central America
First International Organic Coffee Conference, Chiapas
La Providencia Coffee Cooperative, El Salvador
El Salvador at a Developmental Crossroads
Intensive Organic Agriculture for Chiapas, Mexico
Agrinet: Electronic Information Network for Mexico
PART II
FOCUS ON POLICY:
Leveraging Change for Agriculture in International Institutions
Call for Input: Indicators of Sustainability
Protecting the Earth for Sustainable Development
PART III
FOCUS ON HEALTH: WSAA Health Directorate Update (synopsis)
NEWS IN BRIEF
"Two Years After UNCED" Conference Set for July in US
America's Farmers are Gaining Ground
Australians Look to Future with Sustainable Farming
Special Thanks to Contributing Editors
RESOURCES
Brief Reviews of Publications:
Two Steps Backward, One Step Forward: Cuba
Growing our Future: Food Security and the Environment
Growing Dilemmas: Guatemala, the Environment, Global Economy
Pesticide Problems in Caribbean Basin
FactSheet on Agriculture and the World Bank
FOCUS ON RESEARCH: Working with Nature in Mexico
****
FOCUS ON FARMERS
NEW APPROACHES TO AGRICULTURE IN CENTRAL AMERICA
AND MEXICO by Jim Adriance
During the last 50 years the environment in Central America
has suffered enormous damage as the result of human development
activities. Large-scale commercial activities in agriculture, forestry,
livestock, etc. have caused the greatest damage. In addition, social
inequities in land ownership have increasingly forced subsistence
farmers onto more and more fragile ecosystems such as hillsides,
watersheds, and lowland rainforest regions. As the agricultural
frontier shrinks, subsistence farmers have fewer options for
migration and therefore their interest is growing in techniques
that conserve resources while giving good production and economic
returns.
There are other factors fueling the movement by small-scale
farmers in Central America towards sustainable agricultural
methods. Decreasing returns in production from chemical inputs
along with their increasing costs, as well as the lack of credit for
small-scale farmers (due to structural adjustment) are important
factors motivating farmers. At the same time, there has been
significant growth in the number and availability of productive
farmer-friendly techniques developed by NGOs working closely
with farmers.
In the past, government extensionists and people from a
variety of organizations came to small-scale farmers in the region
pushing different fixed models of organic and green revolution
agriculture without taking into account increased labor and cash
costs to the"se farmer. Farming practices have been forced on farmers
who have not had the chance to adapt them slowly and specifically
according to the unique characteristics of their land. This has resulted
in further economic hardship and increased resentment by farmers
towards those trying to implement improvements. Working closely
with farmers to tailor sustainable practices to their particular conditions
has been much more successful.
World Neighbors, an NGO that has worked for 25 years in
Central America, has done much work with farmers to develop
sustainable techniques. Their work has shown one can get 2-5 fold
increases in production on small hillside parcels that have been farmed
with slash-and-burn techniques. Increases in production and reduction
of costs are usually the most interesting to the farmers. Part of World
Neighbors' strategy is to take new farmers to see farmers who have
developed and used sustainable techniques in order to get a first
hand look at success. Environmental benefits such as reduced soil
erosion, improved soil quality, and reduced chemical contamination,
are important components of these new techniques.
Dissemination and transfer of ideas, sharing and spreading of
information between NGOs and farmer groups has been
critical to the success and growth of the sustainable agriculture
movement in Central America. A horizontal approach to technology
transfer has often been more successful than a vertical model where
experts come in with solutions from the outside. The premise of
many outside extensionists is that farmers are ignorant and that
outsiders have the answers. What outsiders often fail to see is the
farmer rationale for different practices. Among the benefits
of slash-and-burn agriculture for example is killing of pests, clearing
a large area in a short time, and low labor costs.
Several NGOs in the region have shown great ability at working
with farmers to find techniques that not only cost less but increase
the short-run and long-run productivity of their land. Facilitating
farmer-to-farmer exchanges of information and encouraging local leaders
to continue experimentation are integral parts of this work.
Contributing to the movement, SIMAS (Servicio de Informacion
Mesoamerican sobre Agricultura Sostenible) in Nicaragua is
documenting techniques and training methodologies that are working
and they are publishing them in a "farmer friendly" style and
making them available to farmers, NGOs and governments. In many
countries, networks are being built and information is being
communicated. A group in Honduras, CIDICCO (The International
Covercrop Clearinghouse) has been working for five years to
document and share information on nitrogen-fixing covercrops.
CIDICCO is now connected to over 500 organizations in 63
countries through publications and electronic mail. ALTERTEC in
Guatemala has organized several Central America initiatives
including annual organic farmer meetings (160 people attended this
year, up from 40 people four years ago) and building national
organic certification capacity. COSECHA, in Honduras, provides
training to NGOs, farmer leaders, government workers, and others in a
farmer-first, farmer-to-farmer methodology that has been successful
with small scale farmers.
There are limits and constraints in the movement towards
sustainable agriculture in Central America. One "recipe" will not
work for all farmers and should not be forced on them because of
success elsewhere. Experimentation must be encouraged
and patience is necessary. Farmers must be allowed to adapt to their
specific situation and abilities. Research needs to be done on proving
which techniques might$ke better in certain areas. Documentation of
the results of new techniques must be improved and communication
about results, good and bad, should also be improved. ***
Jim Adriance was a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, working
with farmers to diversify agriculture by introducing new crops in a
primarily coffee producing area. During his time at the Inter-
American Foundation, he worked for five years in Peru and Ecuador
with projects in community health, microenterprise, land-use
planning and rural development. For the past two years he has
focused on sustainable agriculture and regional integration in
Central America. He may be contacted at the Inter-American
Foundation, 901 N. Stuart Street, Arlington, Virginia; tel: (703) 841-
3800; fax: (703) 525-9315; email: iafes@igc.apc.org.
A more detailed International Sustainable Agriculture Issues Report
on this topic is available from WSAA Washington for US$3.00
(includes postage and handling).
REGIONAL FOCUS: MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
The focus for this quarterly issue is Mexico and selected
countries in Central America. It is not at all representative
of the work towards sustainable agriculture in the region,
but is a brief glimpse of the activity occurring as people
seek to revitalize their soils, farms and communities.
FIRST INTERNATIONAL ORGANIC COFFEE CONFERENCE HELD IN
CHIAPAS, MEXICO
The first international organic coffee conference, sponsored
by the Mexican Association of Ecological Farmers (AMAE) and the
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
was held in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico April 11-14. Approximately
320 participants from 16 countries, both producers and traders, met
to discuss biological pest control, norms, certification and quality control,
ecological management of plantations and social organization and fair
trade.
Jose E. Juarez Varela, of the Union de Ejidos de la Selva,
addressed the conference from the point of view of his union of
coffee growers, representing producers from 30 indigenous
communities in Chiapas:
"We have come to this first International IFOAM Conference
on Organic Coffee after a large process of preparation and discussion
concentrating on three issues of major importance. That is, the
construction of markets and the definition of norms on certification
that guarantee the consumers the nature of the product they are
requiring; the development, promotion and diffusion of an adequate
technology for organic production in the sense that sustainable
agriculture doesn't mean stop doing things but doing them in another
way, nor renouncing the increase of productivity but doing it another
way; and finally, the consolidation of social bases that are needed to
impulse a project of this character.
The fall in prices (of coffee on the world market) has caused
hundreds of thousands of small growers of this aromatic product all
over the world to experience enormous financial difficulties. It has
stimulated larger groups of growers to search for niches in the
market with more rentability, such as organic coffee. At the same
time, it has brought others to decline the intensive use of
agrochemicals to increase production and combat plagues, and to
reevaluate the use of organic compost and the labour force of family
as a way of reducing production costs.
However, it wouldn't be just to state that economic motivations
are the only or major factors responsible for the development of
organic agriculture. At the same time, other motivations are
important. First of all, the growing conscience among growers that it
is necessary to cultivate in harmony with the environment, instead
of abusing it, to value the earth as a patrimony of humanity and to
look after it for future generations. This conscience is the seed of a
new vision of civilization.
In the second place we have to consider the real roots of
traditional agricultural practices still existing among a lot of growers.
Without giving mythical propositions to qualities in the past, it is
true that there exists an accumulated agricultural knowledge with
elements on how to manage natural resources in a sustainable way,
ignored by the green revolutions, but which large groups of growers
-- most of them indigenous -- have preserved and practiced.
In the third place, the existence of a growing market, on the
one hand because of consumers preoccupied for their own health, the
natural environment and for the well being of growers, on the other
because of commercial and industrial agents responding to these
demands, have constructed bonds that facilitate the expansion of
organic agriculture.
Finally, the activities of foundation, NGO's and universities have
contributed in a real spirit of solidarity to promote this kind of agriculture
and have recognized it as a key to create just relations of cooperation
between the North and the South."
Ed's Note: The Union de Ejidos de la Selva R.I., Las Margaritas,
Chiapas, Mexico is a member of C.N.O.C., the national Coalition of
Coffee Farmer Cooperatives. C.N.O.C. is committed to "Producing
better coffee...and a better society." For further information, contact
Gabriela Ejea, CNOC, Tabasco 262 Desp. 301 Col. Roma C.P. 06700 D.F.
Mexico; Tel: 514 02 05; Fax: 207 05 08.
La Selva co-op is a member of Aztec Harvests Coffee Company,
incorporated in 1992 by several of Mexico's farmer coops
participating in CNOC, to give farmers direct access to coffee markets
in the United States, and help them gain fairer prices for their
product, which they control "from the coffee plant to the roasting
plant." Aztec Harvests' La Selva co-op is implementing reforestation
projects and a sustainable organic cultivation program. It is a model
program for other Aztec Harvests organic farmers in Mexico, and
includes an informational database on soil history, farmers, and
their cultivation of organic coffee. Contact Lilith von Foerster of Aztec
Harvest at 1480 66th Street, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA; Tel: (510)
652-2100; Fax: (510) 652-2636.
For more information about the conference, contact: Jose A.
Dardon Hernandez, Conference Organizer, Finca San Miguel, Calle
Central Poniente No. 14-A, Tapachula, Chiapas, 30700 Mexico; Tel:
962-51682; Fax: 962-60455 or Bernward Geier, IFOAM General
Secretary, Okozentrum Imsbach, D-66636 Tholey-Theley, Germany;
Tel: (49) 6853-5190; Fax: (49) 6853-30110.
LA PROVIDENCIA: POST WAR RESTORATION THROUGH
APPLICATION OF ORGANIC PRODUCTION METHODS IN A COFFEE
COOPERATIVE
by Salvador Alfredo Palma
El Salvador, a densely populated country in Central America, is a
nation with an economy based on agriculture. Unfortunately in El
Salvador agriculture is practiced with an intense and often irrational use
of pesticides. The country is second among the most deforested in
Central America, and this has led to a severe level of overall ecological
deterioration. Added to this in 1980 was a decade long civil war which
made it impossible to farm in a "normal" manner. One positive aspect of
these war stricken areas is that they have become real natural resource
reserves. The inhabitants of these zones, who are mostly poor small
farmers and agrarian reform cooperatives, had little opportunity for
development during the armed conflict. These farmers and cooperatives
are now considering organic crop production as an important
opportunity and solution to their economic and social problems.
In this ex-conflictive area the La Providencia Cooperative is
implementing one of the organic coffee production projects which has
been certified by OCIA (Organic Crop Improvement Association). This
project is yielding substantial benefits to Coop members and at the same
time is producing a commodity with a growing demand among
consumers both eager to acquire products free from contaminants, and
aware of the need to protect the world we all are living in. La
Providencia is encouraged by the fact that their production efforts are
resulting in economic benefits allowing them to find solutions to their
social needs.
The La Providencia Cooperative
La Providencia Cooperative is located in Canton La Ceiba,
Municipality of San Augustin, Department of Usulutan, Republic of El
Salvador. It was organized inj982 as a result of the national agrarian
reform fomented by the Government. The coop membership is
currently 147 members, 60 women and 87 men. The cooperative is
located in a region that was seriously affected by the civil war, which
ended with the signing of the Peace Accords in December 1991. This
means that from 1980 to the end of 1991 it was impossible to
systematically work the farms in this region.
This situation resulted in two major phenomena regarding coffee
farms in the region: (a) Almost 90% of these farms were abandoned or
only minimum maintenance activities were carried out, thus leading to a
sharp drop in the coffee yields to only 70-140 kg/hectare; (b) as
mentioned, plantation maintenance was poor or not done at all, but did
result in the beginning of a process of regeneration of the tropical humid
forest which has fostered abundant biodiversity. This regeneration has
occurred in such a way that currently La Providencia is not facing severe
pest or disease problems due to the natural control and repellent efects
that some species of insects and trees are having on the plantation.
Nutritional deficiencies are also at a minimum.
In order to preserve and appropriately handle this plant and
animal wealth, an agreement was signed between the La Providencia
Cooperative, UCRAPROBEX (Union of Agrarian Reform Cooperatives
Working in Coffee Production, Processing and Exporting), and CLUSA,
(Cooperative League of the United States of America). These combined
efforts resulted in La Providencia being the first coffee farm certified by
OCIA as producers of organic coffee in El Salvador. This places El
Salvador in a group of fourteen organic coffee exporting countries in
Latin America.
Achievements. The Organic Certified Coffee Project has resulted
in significant achievements in the following major areas:
Training: Cooperative members have acquired abilities and
knowledge of the organic production process. This has resulted in an
increase of motivation, income, farm maintenance, and improved
working discipline.
Production/Agronomic: Coffee farms have recovered significantly
through trunk pruning or branch layering practices. Plants treated with
this technique show a vigorous production of new growth. Due to the
good results obtained through pruning, this technique is now accepted in
spite of the fact that in the beginning it had a negative impact on yield.
Compost fertilization has had a noticeable positive impact. Coffee
plants treated with this technique are developing soundly; these are
primarily the trees that were pruned.
Soil conservation practices have allowed the maintenance and
protection of those areas susceptible to erosion within the farm.
Ecological. The absence of the use of agrichemicals in the organic
coffee plantation and in reserve areas has progressively allowed for a
high level of recovery of the natural biological balance (wild fauna and
flora).
Cooperative members are now aware of the importance of
ecological issues and as a result have assigned an area as a forest
reserve, and through reforestation with Teak trees former deforested
areas have now recovered.
Socio-economic: The use of techniques such as pruning, shade tree
control, compost fertilization, soil conservation works, and composting
structure construction for the preparation of organic fertilizer, creates
the continuous need of hand labor and of agricultural and animal
byproducts. At the same time these activities have supplemented the
process of an agricultural revitalization of the community. Family
incomes, opportunities for employment, and use of appropriate
technologies have all increased.
Marketing: Initial sales of organic coffee production have allowed
the cooperative to have an income that has been used to pay off working
loans and also provide profit margins they have never experienced
before. Additional manpower is required at all stages of the organic
coffee production process which positively affects the socioeconomic well
being of Coop members who now have access to steady employment.
This project was funded by USAID through the Cooperative League
of the United States of America (CLUSA), with the cooperation of
UCRAPROBEX, the cooperative union which exports "Pipil" coffee.
For further information contact: Ing. Salvador Alfredo Palma,
CLUSA, Avenida Las Acacias 130, San Benito, San Salvador; tels:
(503) 98-2765, 98-2806, 98-2974; fax: (503) 98-3476.
(Eds. Note: This is an edited version of a paper delivered in April 1994
at the First International Organic Coffee Conference, cosponsored by the
Mexican Association of Ecological Farmers (AMAE) and the International
Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM). The agrarian
reform cooperative, "La Providencia," was awarded the 1993 National
Ecology Award of El Salvador for their outstanding and pioneering
achievements in reversing ecological decline through organic agricultural
production. As noted by the author, "despite the critical situation they
were facing, they undertook the task of changing over to the organic
production system with great effort, devotion, and tenacity."
EL SALVADOR AT A DEVELOPMENTAL CROSSROADS
by Monika Firl
El Salvador, after 12 years of civil war, finds itself at an historic
developmental crossroads. The Peace Accords signed in 1992 outline
a reinsertion plan for ex-combatants and a national reconstruction
plan that includes legal land transfers to the campesino population,
support for educational programs and vocational workshops, and
credits for productive projects. Additionally, a slight shift in the
political balance insinuates that these tendencies could be
incorporated into a permanent national platform. This is the moment
when El Salvador could alter its development path from subsistence
to sustainability.
But as with any post-war situation, this is also a moment of
enormous social pressure. Urgent needs in housing, health care,
education and increased productive capacity require immediate
decisions. Juxtaposedly, the environmental crisis facing El Salvador
requires that these decisions be as meticulously planned and
executed as possible. Environmentally speaking, there is very little
"margin of error" in El Salvador.
Problems are Obvious, Solutions Less So
According to a survey done by the Interagency Mission of the
United Nations in February 1992, there exist four general situations
that should be considered "environmental emergencies" in El
Salvador: soil depletion; deforestation; pesticide residues; and the
overall contamination of water in the majority of El Salvador's rivers
and lakes. This reality affects the criteria with which planners and
poicy makers must approach development questions; mistakes could
be irreversible.
Organic agricultural production, natural pesticides, natural
medicines and community-scale recycling projects are hot topics of
debate among the gamut of progressive, non-governmental
development offices taking up the gauntlet to face El Salvador's
development quandary. Unfortunately, these discussions are often
held in absence of an enormous quantity of information and
experience that others have already gathered. An adequate system
of collecting, systematizing, evaluating and disseminating practical
information on these topics simply does not exist in El Salvador.
During 12 years of civil war, when open communication was a
hazardous business, a popular social movement was forced to
develop education, health and productive projects in isolation from
each other. Today, in "peace" it is assumed that the same kinds of
hazards no longer exist. But the shift to open coordination and
exchange of practical information and experience has not come
naturally to most development groups.
Interviews at universities, research centers and development
offices in El Salvador reveal that a considerable amount of ideas,
information and practical experience in designing and implementing
sustainable development models do indeed exist within the country.
But in general that information remains locked within a tight circle of
authors. There is very little information exchange among distinct
development offices doing similar work in different geographical and
political zones within the country.
El Salvador has been able to an even lesser extent to take
advantage of an outside world of information on appropriate
technologies, environmental protection and more efficient use of
natural resources. During the war in El Salvador these lines of
communication were cut. Knowledge of many technical options
remains 'untapped."
A Cooperative Center for Information on Alternative
Technologies
The "Centro Cooperativo de Informacion sobre Tecnologias
Alternativas" (CENCITA) is an effort to facilitate the exchange of
information among community members, technicians and planners
within El Salvador and between El Salvador and the international
community. CENCITA is an independent project under the legal
umbrella of FUNDESYRAM, a Salvadoran Foundation for socio-
economic development and environmental recuperation.
CENCITA is organized as a "cooperative," comprised of
associates representing local universities, research centers,
development organizations, and rural communities and cooperatives,
each with their corresponding rights and responsibilities.
Information gathered from each of these associates constitutes the
basis for a network of local information exchanges.
The ultimate objective of CENCITA is to achieve a
"democratization" of information. As "first steps" in this process,
CENCITA is facilitating the exchange of information at several levels
among its own network of associates.
Information Exchange Between "Campesinos" and "Campesina"
The "campesino" or "campesina" who actually works the land for
his or her survival are the people most desperately needing access to
practical, technical information about how to recover, conserve and
most wisely use his or her natural resources. But the reality is that
they are generally the last individuals to find this kind of information
in their own hands.
As a means of "democratizing" technical information, CENCITA--
in partnership with local development organizations--is facilitating fora
for technical information exchange among "campesinos" and
"campesinas." This information will then be systematized and
redistributed to each participant and to the participating organizations,
and will be disseminated via popular media such as written guidebooks
and community radio stations.
Information Exchange Between "Tecnicos" and "Tecnicas"
As a mechanism to put into practice the exchange and
systemization of information among "tecnicos" and "tecnicas" working
in the field, CENCITA is facilitating the formation of "technical round-
tables." Each technical round-table would have one particular area of
sustainable technology as its focus. Topics in agriculture will include
organic fertilizers, soil and water conservation, integrated pest
management, etc. The same mechanisms would be utilized for
alternative energy sources, water conservation and purification, and
recycling systems for solid wastes as CENCITA expands into these
areas.
Meanwhile, CENCITA continues to actively solicit information
from alternative technology organizations outside the country such as
international information networks, university research centers and
international private, non-profit centers for the promotion of
alternative models of development.
Monika Maria Firl is a freelance journalist and director of CENCITA.
She has been living in El Salvador since October 1991. For further
information contact her at CENCITA, Apdo. Postal 2543, Centro de
Govierno, San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America. Tel. (503) 98-
0648; Email: cencita@nicarao.apc.org
{INTENSIVE ORGANIC AGRICULTURE FOR CHIAPAS, MEXICO
by Jenna Berg, Ph.D.
Children's Community Garden, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation,
works with indigenous families and communities in organic agriculture
and education in Chiapas, Mexico and in the highlands of Quiche,
Guatemala. Our goal is to help communities reclaim their sustainable
relationship with the land, recover a cultural and agricultural link with
the past, and through education be able to improve their health and
make informed choices about the use of technologies (including foods,
chemicals, medical care, televisions, consumer goods, etc.) that are ever-
present in the global system of which they are now, inescapably, a part.
We utilize intensive organic agricultural techniques which are
sustainable for both the land and the people, and which make use of local
resources, local labor, and appropriate technologies for the culture and
the environment. The gardens are a teaching tool, and children who
work on these agricultural projects also attend school with proceeds from
their work.
The citizens of Morelia, a small, indigenous community of 280
families located two hours east of San Cristobal de Las Casas, have
requested the help of Childen's Community Garden, Inc. to implement an
intensive agricultural project that will create sustainable gardens in the
heart of the community. The aim is to provide fresh, nutritious produce
without the use of chemical fertilizers or insecticides/herbicides. The
free flow of basic food stuffs to this community, including fruits and
vegetables, has been greatly restricted by the Mexican Military since
January 7, 1994. Also denied is access to basic farming tools, seeds, and
supplies, but the rains are coming and it's time to plant. Funds are being
sought to continue the project, already off to a good start with an
enthusiastically organized rotating labor force which has built several
raised beds in the town center. Men, women and children have actively
participated in a three-day skills workshop to learn sustainable
agriculture skills, and are hoping to complete thirty demonstration beds
over the next three months.
For more information, contact: Jenna Berg and Michael Steady, Co-
Directors, Children's Community Garden,Inc., c/o Josefa Ortiz de
Dominguez 7B, San Cristobal de Las Casas, 29250 Chiapas, Mexico; Fax:
(52) 967-82093. United States address is 2244 The Circle, Apt. 2,
Raleigh, North Carolina 27608. Donations for the Morelia project to
purchase seeds, tools, hose, photography documentation, educational
materials and equipment are very much needed and will be greatly
appreciated.
AGRINET: AN ELECTRONIC INFORMATION NETWORK
FOR MEXICO'S SMALL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS
by Dr. Scott S. Robinson
Mexico's small agricultural producers are the backbone of
this country: economically and culturally, historically and in
the present, they are vital to the well-being and to the very
identity of Mexico. Relying almost entirely on traditional
farming methods, they lack the technological advantages of the
large agribusinesses with their mechanized production of high-
profit crops for export. However, in light of today's concern
with the preservation both of the country's cultural heritage
and its environmental and physical resources, their low-tech
methods appear of increasing relevance to the future.
Still, the country's small producers must compete in a
market which includes large capital-intensive agribusinesses,
foreign-based companies with advanced technology,
international produce brokers, and all the sophisticated
mechanisms of the interconnected twenty-first century global
economy (including the developing international trade blocks,
such as the North American Free Trade Agreement). The small
producers themselves, the country's campesino farmers, are aware
of the fact that their greatest challenge lies in developing ways
to function effectively in this context, and that their greatest
need is for access to vital information and for greater ease of
communication with other producers and potential buyers of their
products.
The Electronic Network for Small Producers, or "AGRINET"
(Red de Informacion Ejidal), seeks to create an information-
exchange system designed to meet this need, accessible to
small producers all over the country. AGRINET will provide
information services with instantaneous access by computer
modem to interactive data bases in each state of the republic,
giving small producers access to the information they need in
order to compete effectively in domestic and export sales of
their produce.
Once in operation AGRINET will be able to provide a
multitude of information services beneficial to small
producers all over Mexico, including:
* current price information to aid in negotiation of
planned sales;
* price information for needed purchases;
* information on the application of appropriate
agricultural methods, including such things as
developing climate conditions, recommendations on
available plant strains, pest-affected areas and
information on how to deal with pests in ways that
are environmentally safe;
* information and contacts to assist women in the
commercialization of their textiles and other hand-
crafted products;
* information obtained from the latest research and
academic studies relating to agriculture;
* on-line technical advice;
* guidance on techniques for the developing and higher-
profit area of growing organic produce (coffee, in
particular), as well as assistance on how to get
certification of organically-grown crops.
Clearly, this project has enormous potential for providing
assistance, directly and economically, to Mexico's small
agricultural producers. There will be many indirect benefits,
as well, such as motivating computer literacy in rural areas, and
the democratizing experience of providing people who have often
felt marginal with the opportunity of having more knowledge
and control in the area most central to their existence: their
work, their identity, and their economic survival.
The AGRINET project was initiated in 1992 with the support
of a planning grant from the Ford Foundation. It has received
broad endorsement from national and local campesino
organizations. With its Mexico City base at the Universidad
Metropolitana Iztapalapa campus, AGRINET has set up a network of
cooperating state universities which will provide key
logistical support (through the universities' Internet-linked
computer network. AGRINET has recently received
additional Ford Foundation support which will cover about half
the expenses of establishing the network's first phase, which
will be in the southern and southeastern regions of Mexico.
AGRINET is now seeking matching support from both
foundations and the private sector in order to begin putting
this network into operation, first in the southern and
southeastern regions of Mexico, eventually to be expanded to
all regions of the country. Many kinds of support are
currently needed, and foundations or businesses which would
like to get involved in this ground-breaking project can
participate by contributing in any of the following ways:
* tax-deductible donations to the AGRINET Project at the
Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa or to
individual groups participating in AGRINET;
* in-kind donations of equipment and software (AGRINET
needs computers, modems, hard drives, monitors, and
just about any kind of computer parts and supplies,
including equipment which might currently be
considered out-of-date);
* training for the young people who will be operating the
computer and modem technology at state and regional
AGRINET centers in each of the states.
* concrete suggestions about how best to link producer
organizations with border brokers, potential markets
Ed's. Note: Dr. Robinson reports that demands for the network are
growing faster than resources can be dispersed as seed money.
For more information, contact him at the Anthropology Department,
Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa, Mexico, D.F. Apdo.
P. 55532 C.P. 09340; Tel. 724-47-63 or 687-60-30; Fax: 612-08-85;
Email: ssrobinson@igc.apc.org