A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY – the conundrum of collaborating with the government

One of President Molina's recent overhauls in the Guatemalan National government has proven itself particularly interesting to Semilla Nueva: the commitment to the development of a functioning Agricultural Extension program for farmers.  Farmers have been eagerly awaiting this moment for decades; its the first sizable extension service in the country in 14 years.  The government may have been a little preoccupied with the 36 year-long civil war, but with 76% of the country’s poor depending on agriculture for their livelihood (USAID 2010), the time is ripe for a change like this. The potential impact is in the numbers: the staff of extensionists will increase from 17 to 1,000; the budget will go from $3 to $40 million. The task is daunting, and some of the best minds in agriculture are currently sitting around the round table judiciously planning the next steps.  Our lead agronomist, Guatemalan Trinidad Recinos, said it best, “Its an opportunity of pure gold you have in your hands.  Do it right, and this could change the face of Guatemala’s rural poor forever.”

Executive Director Curt Bowen explaining Semilla Nueva's
 programs to MAGA extensionists

Opportunity for the government

In October Semilla Nueva was invited to that roundtable to share what we have learned from our model and our technologies throughout the last four years working one-on-one with farming communities.  One of the many things that came out of that meeting was a collaborative field day, a chance for Semilla Nueva to play host to some extensionists from the Ministry of Agriculture (MAGA), taking them straight to the scene of the action with four of our partner farmers to see first hand what struggles and barriers corn farmers are facing.  As we stood in the comfy, cozy, air-conditioned MAGA building getting prepped for the day, we watched government workers roll out of their four-wheel-drive government vehicles, doused in sunscreen and toting bottles of agua pura.  We soon realized what a day of learning this would be.  

We took them to Bernabe Alezano’s plot first, one of our most successful farmers in 2012, earning almost 4 times the national average on yield for his corn.  The beauty of Bernabe’s success story is that his high yields came through sustainable, low-input growing techniques – for the last four years Bernabe has gone against the grain not burning his field, not tilling for the last three years, and incorporating nitrogen-fixing green manure crops.  We all gathered in a circle and gave Bernabe the floor to boast about his field that was filled with a flourishing pigeonpea crop and organic material he will soon incorporate into the soil.  Of the 14 extensionists present, only 1 had even heard of no-till agriculture, while only few raised a doubtful hand when asked if they knew what green manures were.  An hour into the day, lightbulbs were going off. While the MAGA had slaved away creating a list of twenty something trendy technologies, the farmers were already leading the way in a revolution of simple, free changes in growing techniques producing incredible results.

MAGA extensionists listen intently as Semilla Nueva agronomist
explains why farmers continue to burn every year between harvests

Herein lays the real barrier prohibiting the functionality of government extension: the mutual misunderstanding between farmers and extensionists.  Farmers have unrealistic expectations about the capacity of the government, while the government workers have misguided perceptions of the needs of the farmers.  Because extension programs haven’t functioned well in decades, farmers have ill-advised ideas of what a government extension program can do for them – fight the big multinational companies, guarantee prices, change the system.  At the same time, the government extensionists don’t understand the context of the farmers, making it difficult to provide appropriate solutions.  The majority of the extensionists present had never grown corn or even worked with corn farmers before.  The 1,000 extensionists entrusted to serve the 1 million grain farmers in this country are unfortunately ill-prepared and under-trained for the job.  That is where Semilla Nueva comes in.

An opportunity for Semilla Nueva

Collaboration with the State is a constant conundrum for development organizations.  In an “industry” (if we can name Development so) where needs are constantly increasing and resources often diminishing, organizations sometimes feel pressured to take any and all open hands offering collaboration in order to achieve their goals. But what about collaborating with the government?  And what if that government is not necessarily highly regarded around the world nor among its own people in the country? 

By definition, we are non-governmental organizations.  But does that mean we should not be working to facilitate a stronger national state that can provide for its people?  While we welcome the generosity of the numerous NGOs in Guatemala, the problem is that many times they only meet immediate needs, leave out the long-term and sustainable changes needed, and often let the government off the hook by flooding the market with new technologies, new ideas and new aid.

Juan Manuel de Leon explains to MAGA extensionists why
talking directly with the farmers and listening to their ideas
is so important to successful agricultural development
 

If a major reason why Guatemala's agricultural situation is so dire is due to the poor government extension system, then we need to come up with models for how it can work - from the village level up.  Our hope is not to reach all of the farmers in Guatemala, but rather to be the catalyst for a national, state-sponsored effort to reach them. Over the course of this decade, we know we won't be able to double the incomes of all 240,000 families growing corn on our own, but if we can start to bridge the gap between communities and the government, perhaps we can start a movement that can impact millions of farmers.  We aim to help communities better understand the government’s capability and direct requests more efficiently, while also helping government extensionists do their job better by understanding the barriers to development farmers are facing.

Four years ago when Semilla Nueva started, we too had a long list of overly ambitious projects and technologies from organic liquid fertilizer production to home composting.  But what we had to live and learn was what the farmers actually wanted, what they needed, how we could make small, simple changes that could have big impacts. We had to learn how to start small with technologies that were appealing to the farmers on an economic level and then scale up.  We had to learn how to move from technical assistance programs to a more collaborative, farmer-to-farmer model that works with communities to find what works.  What we were able to provide the MAGA during our collaborative field day was an opportunity to skip that step.  We took them straight to the farmers so they could hear how to move past the live and learn stage and straight into the high-impact development, making effective use of that $37 million increase in funding.

An unprecedented opportunity for the farmers

Rolando de Leon explaining how he uses
 his Pigeonpea crop as a green manure.

The most beautiful part of the day was that it wasn’t ours, the day belonged to the farmers. Semilla Nueva became a platform for which to amplify that invaluable piece of development that is all to often lost, the voice of the farmers themselves.  For the first time in their life they were meeting with governmental officials, and not by way of a march on the capital or a protest in the streets.  Rather, this time the government was meeting them on their turf, lending their ears (and their pens and notepads) to listen and learn from the farmers.  Juan Manuel rushed into his house to whip up fresh orange juice from his own orange trees.  Bernabe put on his best shirt, and tucked it in. They all stood taller that day, imbibing in this very unique opportunity to boast and brag and show off their thriving pigeonpea plots, their healthy soils and their community leadership. 

What did they have to say? Rutilio advised the government workers to take caution in jumping into too many technologies.  “Focus on 2 or 3 that really work and bring it to the people.” Rolando and Bernabe told the plight of campesinos versus multinational agribusiness companies, pleading more advocacy from the government.  Juan Manuel petitioned for conviviality - living together.  “We’ll be much more likely to listen to you and try your ideas if you’re out here more often, if you understand our lives, if you share with us.” 

Looking upon the sunburned faces of all the extensionists, exhausted from the humidity they were not accustomed to, these four campesinos all found themselves in a peculiar predicament that day – they found themselves educating the educators.   Now there is something we can call participatory development.

An opportunity for all

The extensionists came and left with a strong sense of goodwill.  Everyone knows all too well there has been a sad history of disservice, discrimination, even destruction in the rural communities of Guatemala over the last half century.  But perhaps 2013 is a year to re-write the story of the plight of Guatemalan farmers.  As the coastal department director of MAGA so eloquently petitioned to the farmers that day, "We know we aren't here under the best circumstances. We know that the Ministry of Agriculture has abandoned farmers for years. But we have a chance to do something different, and we'll need your help and involvement to do it."  All of us – the government, Semilla Nueva, the farmers – are ready for the challenge to figure out how to collaborate.  All of us know this is an opportunity of pure gold, for all.  If we do it right, we could change the face of Guatemalan agriculture forever.  

Bernabe Alezano, tucked shirt and all, honored to share his voice
with the government for perhaps the first time in his life.