Guatemala's Challenge
Most low-income people in Guatemala depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihoods, and many farm subsistence crops on marginal lands. The vast majority of these farmers rely on conventional and chemically-intensive methods which have slowly degraded their soil. Impoverished soils produce less, leaving many farmers barely breaking even, and many losing money every year they farm. Further, land degradation makes farmers much more vulnerable to droughts and storms which are predicted by most climate scientist to worsen. Guatemala's small farmers are trapped in a cycle in which the way they grown is slowly eroding their livelihood into further poverty.
- 72% of Guatemala's farmland is severely degraded as a result of human activity (1)
- 50% of Guatemala's population, or 6.64 million people, are employed by agriculture (2)
- In 2008, the price of chemical fertilizers tripled, forcing many farmers to harvest at a loss
- In 2009, severe drought caused 2.5 million to go hungry, and the President declared a state of national calamity.
- In 2010, Tropical Storm Agatha destroyed 30% of the grain harvest, adding to the already severe case of food insecurity in Guatemala.
- Only 3% of Guatemalan farmers receive agricultural extension services; the government employs 13 technicians for over a million grain farming families, and most services focus on chemically intensive farming (3)
1. "Guatemala -- Severity of Human Induced Land Degredation." Land and Water Development Division. FAO. 2004. Web. December 14, 2010.
2. IFAD. "Guatemala country statistics." Rural Poverty Portal. IFAD. 2008. Web. November 9, 2010.
3. Information from the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture (MAGA), 2009
Read More: Farmer to Farmer Solution
