Written by: Sarah Leonhardt
All included quotes have been translated from Spanish.
Last year in Guatemala’s Nimlajacoc community, extreme temperatures and a devastating drought wiped out farmers’ cardamom crops — completely.
Cardamom, a sweet and slightly hot spice used in cooking and medicine for centuries, is Nimlajacoc farmers’ main source of income. But the spice is failing to provide for communities’ basic needs. Growth and exportation of cardamom has faced critical production challenges, from increasing effects of climate change on crops to a lack of investment from the private sector to stabilize the market.
“We have documented severe cases where cardamom-producing communities experienced total crop losses due to prolonged droughts and extreme temperatures,”
says Byron Guillermo Tot Icó, a climate change adaptation technician at Heifer International Guatemala.
Heifer International estimates that Guatemalan farming families need $4,688 USD annually to cover their basic needs. Their current income gap? $2,456 USD.
“The urgency of interventions is evident in the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that threaten the food and economic security of thousands of farming families in the region.”
Agricultural livelihoods everywhere are under critical threat as climate change exacerbates, but perhaps especially so in subtropical humid forests. In Central America, Guatemala and Honduras’ geographic location and susceptibility to climate phenomena make these countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change — and they were the focus of Conservation International and Heifer International’s project, "Building climate resilience in supply chains for the mobilization of adaptation funding."
Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the project implemented climate-smart strategies in local farming communities to help cardamom, allspice, coffee, and cocoa crops flourish. Agroforestry systems were built, introducing shade management for crops and encouraging more plantings of shade-loving plants like cacao; soil conditions were improved with vermicompost, a worm-based compost that farmers could not only use but sell; and crop irrigation systems were strengthened.
“One of the most successful practices implemented in our project has been the development of integrated rainwater harvesting systems combined with irrigation technology for cardamom nurseries,” shares Tot. Before, “producers had to transport water manually from distant sources, investing up to three and a half hours a day in this activity.” Now, a collection tank and ground irrigation network of filtered water provides a controlled, efficient solution to watering crops.
“The results have been extraordinary and completely measurable,”
Tot shares. “A 78% reduction in seedling losses during the dry season was achieved compared to the previous cycle.”
“Measurable” is the key word. Beyond implementing adaptable farming practices, the project’s most revolutionary achievement was creating a new metric for measuring the impact of adaptable agriculture techniques: the Adaptation Equivalency Index (AEI).
The AEI quantifies the impact of investments in adaptation measures for supply chains — an important strategy for motivating private sector involvement. More regulated, stable, and dependable crops only create a better market for large sellers. The more that climate-adaptabile techniques are implemented, the better crop production will be, benefiting both private interests and local farmers at once.
“AEI generates tangible value for the private sector by substantially improving the quality and stability of agricultural products,” Tot says.
Edgar Armando Ruiz Cruz, Vice President of Guatemalan non-profit organization FUNDECAR and a training coordinator for cardamom producers during the project, believes AEI can make an impact. “With a more robust AEI, fed with more data from producers, organized groups, and geographic areas, the data obtained will allow for better recommendations for each specific group and for the country as a whole,” Ruiz shares.
A remarkable win of the project was involving more women in spice production. While the use of agricultural equipment has traditionally fallen to men in Guatemala, 35% of the participants in the project’s training courses were women.
“This participation has not only improved women's technical skills, but has also strengthened their position as agents of change within community structures,” Tot says.
Young people were also involved, achieving what Tot describes as an “intergenerational transfer of knowledge.” In just one pilot project out of 22 total, 12 young people were included in production management system training, 53 in nursery and irrigation system management, and 47 in awareness-raising of climate change adaptation.
“The project has generated transformations that transcend the initial production objectives, establishing structural changes in the social and organizational fabric of the beneficiary communities,” Tot says.
It’s a promising first step for areas preparing for the challenges of its farming future. Aided by the AEI, farmers from Honduras and Guatemala can access better support as they implement additional climate-smart practices — legitimizing climate adaptation as a profitable, investment-worthy, and critical measure capable of delivering positive and lasting impact in the agricultural sector.
Credits:
Conservation International