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Community Mobilization

Agricultural Communities Lacking Strong Organization


Communities without educational resources need educators. Semilla Nueva trains local volunteers, called promotores, in proven sustainable agriculture techniques and in strategies to share this knowledge. This system of community empowerment has been used for years in Central America with excellent results.

Our model for promotor development has three phases:

		Learn Semilla Nueva begins by collaborating with promotores to assess local agricultural resources and problems. From this shared understanding, we begin informing promotores about sustainable agriculture practices. The process starts with workshops on theory and progresses to field visits exploring successful examples in other communities. With this foundation of knowledge, we work with promotores to identify the most valuable agricultural solutions for their community.
		Experiment and Develop Utilizing these agricultural technologies, we collaborate with promotores to plan a test for a small plot of their land (usually about half an acre). Promotores are responsible for day-to-day maintenance and measurements, while Semilla Nueva provides technical assistance and guidance. Following harvest, we analyze results, discussing what worked and exploring possible improvements. In the end, promotores understand the technology well enough to share it with others and will have gained a scientific basis for leading future innovation.
		Share Semilla Nueva provides materials, planning assistance, and support to help promotores teach these methods to their community. Promotores host local workshops and help other farmers experiment with sustainable agriculture. In this way, they transition from learning and experimenting to actively teaching. Throughout this phase, Semilla Nueva continues to provide advising, until promotores are ready to serve as independent extensionists. This process comes full circle as promotores train new promotores, either in other communities or in their own.

Click here to see examples of our work