PROJECTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION


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.

La Semilla del Progreso, an agricultural training center providing intensive training for farmers from surrounding communities and afterwards continues to support them in the sometimes delicate transition from conventional practices to regenerative organic agriculture.

In 2011 EPIC sponsored a visit to Honduras by Salvadoran farmers to see the work of COSECHA, another EPIC partner organization. This began a very valuable farmers-to-farmer teaching experience between people living in similar dry areas and dealing with similar problems.

Researchers at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, are breeding perennial varieties of grains that eliminate erosion and actually help build soil. By crossing high-yield annual species like wheat and sorghum with their wild perennial relatives, the Land Institute aims to create food crops that don't require intensive tilling, tending and spraying.