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Sitting in the dappled sunlight by this remote stream in southern Honduras, it was hard to believe that 20 years ago, there were no trees here at all. In October of 1998, Hurricane Mitch sent a roaring torrent of water, rocks, and mud tearing through this now-tranquil valley, toppling giant ceiba and guanacaste trees, recalled Adolfo Espinal, director of Comité de Desarrollo Social (CODESO, Social Development Committee). Formed as a response to Mitch, CODESO led an effort to plant 13,000 trees in this watershed to help it recover.
This ministry of the Brethren in Christ Church in Orocuina, Choluteca Department welcomed several members of the MCC Honduras team this August to learn more about two of their MCC-supported projects that promote sustainability and community development in the area. Helping farmers become resilient and self-reliant in the face of longer droughts and flood-inducing downpours caused by climate change has been CODESO’s aim since 2010, when they shifted their previously relief-oriented focus.
Adolfo led us further upstream from the shaded grove where we’d been resting to a small dam with an aqueduct leading out of it. “Three hundred families use water from here,” he told us, but it had taken some doing to provide that access to the people of the pueblo. One rich landowner controls much of this creek, and another owns the spring. CODESO had to negotiate with both to secure the use of this water by the local people.
CODESO director Angel Adolfo Espinal (left) and farmer Melvin Virgilio Sánchez Portillo, acting treasurer of the Araditos farmers’ savings collective, teach a group of MCCers about Melvin’s crop of corn and maicillo. MCC photo/Lily Mast
The following morning, Adolfo introduced us to a farmers’ saving collective in Araditos, one of over 100 smaller communities surrounding Orocuina. CODESO planted the idea for the group about 10 months before our visit, and after several months of organizing and planning, the cooperative had officially been in operation for about five months as of the end of August.
Since it was Saturday, we were able to meet with the 20 members of the cooperative in the schoolhouse where they hold their monthly meetings. Adolfo offered a short devotional about making responsible decisions, especially when we’re choosing how to interact with each other and the planet. It’s this theology of love for neighbor and creation that motivates CODESO’s efforts to help farmers wean themselves off pesticides which damage human and environmental health. This can be a challenge in a region plagued perennially by locusts and yellow aphids.
The farmers introduced themselves and told us how their group works. Members contribute to the group’s shared fund in multiple ways. Each person pays a monthly membership fee of 20 lempiras, or roughly 80 cents USD, which acts as a savings contribution. Absence penalties for missed meetings cost 50 lempiras, a day’s worth of income. A member is allowed three pre-arranged excuses per year, but no-shows or additional absences are subject to the fine.
The collective’s most powerful tool is the micro-loan, which acts as a safety net for the community and a way to grow their joint savings. If there’s an emergency need an individual can’t finance themselves, the group can help cover it. For example, if a member needs to repair their roof for 1,000 lempiras, all they need to do is sign a promissory note with two witnesses. The interest is 2% per month, and payments and capitalizations are recorded in the group’s shared ledger, which all members have the right to check over for accuracy and fairness.
Melvin Virgilio Sánchez Portillo, treasurer of the collective, offered to give us a tour of the land he cultivates after our meeting. He led the way up a rocky path past his home and those of his neighbors. We continued between hand-stacked rock walls and under mango trees to the parcel where Melvin grows corn and maicillo, a type of sorghum.
We found ourselves in a field of what, at first glance, looked like newly planted corn. Mountains and forests surrounded the baby plants, and to the right, we could see a more mature crop growing on a hill. The flat land and the hill together constitute a three-manzana plot (about 5.2 acres) that belongs to a wealthy landowner who lives close by in the countryside and demands half of Melvin’s harvest for the “privilege” of being allowed to work the land. Farmers in the zone almost always find themselves in this type of sharecropping situation, since, as Melvin told us, the going rate for one manzana (about 1.7 acres) of land is 100,000 lempiras, or about 7.5 years’ worth of earnings.
The young crop had been planted by hand a little over three weeks earlier. Melvin showed us that what looked like a single young corn plant was actually a corn and a maicillo plant growing together. They grow well like this because they mature and are harvested on different schedules. Planting in this way acts as insurance against a dry year. During a growing season without much rain, the corn will often die, but the maicillo is able to survive in the harsher conditions.
Corn and maicillo grow side by side in the country near Orocuina, Choluteca, Honduras. In the background, a mature crop of these two plants illustrates this planting method’s drought insurance benefits: the corn has died from lack of water, but the maicillo is still green and ready for harvest soon. Farmers are having to rely more heavily on this sorghum species for food than they have in the past. MCC photo/Lily Mast
Another look at the mature crop revealed this is exactly what had happened to the April planting, which was nearly ready to be harvested. The dry stalks of corn and still-green maicillo mottled the hillside with a reminder of the too-dry summer. Despite the corn dying this year, the farmers had mentioned while we were in the schoolhouse that the rains had been better. Three years ago, even the maicillo failed due to a combination of drought and locusts.
On our way back down the hill from the parcel, Melvin invited us into his home. With proceeds saved from his time as a migrant farm laborer in Guatemala, he purchased a plot of land and built his home from materials already on the lot. His family welcomed us in, and we got to see some of the steel drums CODESO helps families obtain to store their harvests throughout the year. These barrels increase the storage life of beans and grains from a few months to a year or more by keeping out moisture and pests. If an entire harvest failed before this project, communities were forced to rely on relief efforts for food, but now they can draw upon their past yields to weather a particularly bad season.
With the anticipation of the good maicillo harvest standing in the field, the family felt confident to sell their reserves from last season. Melvin’s children showed us the family’s livestock, including pigs and chicks purchased with the proceeds. The family shared a snack with us—purchased with that same money—and we visited for a while before heading back down the hill.
As the climate crisis grows more dire, life will only become more difficult for the people who cultivate this area as rains become more unpredictable and insects and disease overtake crops stressed by unfavorable conditions. It is heartening to see organizations like CODESO working to mitigate climate impacts by implementing creative and sustainable agriculture methods, building physical infrastructure, and strengthening social capital to bolster the communities in the region so they can hopefully live in harmony with their environment here for generations to come.
Lily Mast is currently serving as Digital Communications Specialist with the MCC Honduras office.