The 
Baja Verapaz – Sustainable Agriculture program begins work with farm families by focusing on increasing yields of the basic food crops, which in Guatemala are corn and beans. By implementing extremely effective new practices of water management, soil conservation, and resilient sustainable agriculture, program participants usually double their corn and beans harvests in the first year.

The first-year increase in yields is primarily the result of water management and the enhanced water-holding capacity of the soil with organic fertilization. By the third year, the soil has been built up and harvests regularly triple. At the same time, the use of expensive purchased agricultural inputs is greatly reduced by switching to organic farming. These new farming practices demand rigorous labor, but if the cultivatable area of the family farm is only 2 to 5 acres, very intensive farming is essential.

The climate changes are already being experienced in Guatemala. With undependable rainfall – downpours and then none – program participants are working hard to prevent soil erosion and enable the rain that falls to soak in and be available for crops. Each year more participating farmers lay out contours across hillsides and plant them with specially selected grasses to form filter barriers. The majority of this land was planted with corn and beans. Other contour lines were planted with trees or became guides for building rock walls or water-holding ditches. All this was done with people’s power, no fossil fuel used!

Soil conservation, water management help farmers be more resilient
The climate changes already being experienced in Guatemala. With undependable rainfall – downpours and then none – program participants are working hard to prevent soil erosion and enable the rain that falls to soak in and be available for crops. Each year more participating farmers lay out contours across hillsides and plant them with specially selected grasses to form filter barriers.  The majority of this land was planted in corn and beans. Other contour lines were planted with trees or became guides for building of rock walls or water holding ditches. All this was done with people power, no fossil fuel used!

Planting trees

The Baja Verapaz – Sustainable Agriculture program planted a total of  34,248 trees in 2023.

Trees were being planted in 18 communities with a total of 277 families involved in planting. These families receive the trees without cost, but they are not paid anything for all of the work they do carrying the trees to the planting locations (sometimes long distances), digging the large holes for planting, and caring for the trees.

About 40% of the trees were used in reforestation of badly eroding land. Frequently this serious deforestation has been caused by powerful lumbering companies or wealthy individuals coming in and cutting forests illegally. The deforestation causes soil erosion and multiple negative effects in the environment. Perhaps one of the most serious effects is that the small streams on which local populations depend for their farm and household use have less water. Doing reforestation is the most difficult work of the project.

Approximately 30% of the trees will be planted on the farms of local participants in a wide variety of small agroforestry projects. These consist of a managed mix of trees planted to produce various products: food to eat or sell, fodder for livestock by cutting lower tree branches, lumber for houses, sustainably grown firewood for the family, etc. The objective is to restore the land while also producing an economic advantage for the farm family.

Another on-the-farm way is to create living fences. Planting rows of cypress trees can solve a major problem contributing to deforestation in the region. Farmers cut down small native trees to make fence posts for barbed wire fences, but the life of these fence posts is only approximately 6 years. Planting rows of cypress as living fences solves this cause of deforestation. About 28% of the trees planted will become living fences. A smaller number of trees will be planted on farms to retain terraces. Mostly these are pacaya palms as they are recognized for their ability to retain the soil. Also they produce pods with a flower that is a popular ingredient in many traditional dishes.

To curb the consumption of junk foods and to improve local nutrition, especially that of children, 375 grafted fruit trees have been planted this grant year. These have mostly been planted by women relatively close to their homes to enable easy access to the fruit and to be able to bring water to the trees in very dry weather. There are also many additional fruit trees planted as part of the on-farm agroforestry projects.

Aquaculture
EPIC’s agricultural programs are expanding efforts in aquaculture, teaching people to raise fish in family fish ponds. The family or a group of neighbors dig the pond, and the EPIC program staff provides instruction on caring for the pond and the young fish. Families can then harvest one or several fish for dinner and leave the rest to continue growing. Tilapia is a fish that is easy to raise in Central America, and a pond can continue to provide food and extra income for years.

Fuel-Saving Stoves
These stoves greatly reduce the amount of firewood needed for cooking, and the chimney dramatically improves kitchen air quality. The fuel-saving stoves reduce the amount of firewood used for cooking as compared to using an open fire on the floor. This is a very important complement to EPIC’s program of planting trees for reforestation (see video above). To achieve reforestation, it is necessary to be planting significantly more trees than local people need to cut for cooking. Using less than half as much wood to cook also saves time and labor spent cutting, splitting, and carrying wood.

Breathing smoke causes very significant lung damage for the persons who is cooking. Cooking over an open fire with no chimney fills the kitchen with smoke that contains dangerous particulates and carbon monoxide. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 4.1 million premature deaths per year due to respiratory problems caused by indoor cooking. Women who have cooked over an open fire for years are particularly affected.

Chicken Projects
Families learn to build corrals for their poultry that include nest boxes and a roofed area to protect the birds from rain If chickens, turkeys and ducks are kept fenced in rather than running loose, it becomes possible to grow a vegetable garden. The women saw that if chickens were allowed to run freely, they ate up all the gardens. With corralled poultry, it is possible to collect the manure which can then be used to provide nitrogen for compost piles. The compost will be used for growing more vegetables and the extra vegetable leaves and waste is fed to the chickens. The program’s program to vaccinate poultry reduces their mortality, and the families have more eggs and meat for special occasions.

The ecological farming practices taught are organic – chemical-free
Compost, raising worms, planting legumes and crop rotation are used to increase soil fertility. These practices also increase the organic material in the soil, which enables it to hold more water. Vegetables and fruit are protected with home-made organic insecticides and repellants. Practically all participating families have created methods for collecting the manure from their chickens or other domestic animals to fertilize family vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and other crops. Crop rotation and intercropping are also practiced by most participants in the The Baja Verapaz – Sustainable Agriculture program. For instance, corn is commonly planted first and beans, which are legumes, are later interplanted with the corn.