Improved Nutrition, Agricultural Development Helps Bring Hondurans Out of Poverty and Hunger

Posted by Ertharin Cousin / January 06, 2012

Small commercial vegetable farm where, through the USAID ACCESSO program, women are establishing and managing home gardens to produce vegetables for family consumption and to generate additional household income in La Paz, Honduras. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

One of the most exciting moments in my recent media tour of U.S. and UN food security projects in Honduras came in the middle of a lush vegetable field in the township of Las Pavas. Surrounded by lettuce, broccoli, carrots and radishes, Nora Diaz told me that thanks to their home garden, her family -- unlike many in Honduras -- was able to stay together.

As part of the USAID ACCESSO initiative that targets 18,000 poor rural households in Honduras, the Diaz family was given assistance in the form of training, fertilizer, seed, and irrigation that allowed them to grow better and more nutritious food for their family. It also allowed them to produce a surplus that can be sold to generate income. Thanks to this, Mr. Diaz did not need to leave his family in search of work in the city, or abroad.

Mario Corea Pineda has gone a step further. He is a small farmer… more »

Posted under: Western Hemisphere

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Helping Guatemala Cultivate a Better Future

Posted by Ertharin Cousin / January 04, 2012

Cooperativa Agricola Integral Mujeres Quatro Pinos (Integrated Women's Agricultural Cooperative) in the central highlands of Guatemala is a heartening example of what women can accomplish when they set their minds to it, work together and receive the necessary investment support.

I visited Quatro Pinos' vegetable production, processing, and marketing operation last month on a media tour of Guatemala as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations agencies in Rome.

In just six years, the cooperative has grown from a group of 35 women with small vegetable plots to a 350-member cooperative that manages 415 acres of land. Since the fall of 2010, they have quadrupled their production from 450,000 to 2 million pounds of vegetables. They grow snow peas, English peas, string beans, and mini carrots that they then process, package and export -- much to the… more »

Posted under: Western Hemisphere

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