Food Security, Three Hectares at a Time

Land banks in Nicaragua have helped to transform the lives of more than 80 farmers and their families, Mark VanderWees, a mission worker with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), writes in a recent newsletter.

The land banks are financed through the Foods Resource Bank (FRB), which is based in the United States.

More than seven years ago, CRWRC with the help of FRB started to create a project that would lend money to farmers buy a piece of land. Most farmers in Nicaragua rented land and eked out only a marginal living.

The program began with 16 farmers in one land bank. Now there are six land banks with 84 farmers. So far, three families have paid back the loans they received to purchase the property.

VanderWees explains the land bank program in the newsletter sent to supporters and CRWRC staff. "We buy large tracts of land and divide them in three hectare plots," he says. Three hectares, if farmed intensively, "can easily support a family." A hectare is equivalent to 2.5 acres.

CRWRC and its partners also help to teach farmers proven techniques to improve crops, including how to fertilize the soil and prevent erosion, manage plant diseases and insects, and promote new varieties of crops, VanderWees says.

It takes a couple years for the land to start producing, he says. At the start, farmers are barely able to produce enough food for their family, let alone start paying back the loan.

But soon, "something transformational happens: confidence replaces timidity; beans, corn and dozens of other crops are planted; flowers and vegetable gardens appear; zinc roofs replace the plastic sheeting on houses; trees begin producing fruit and giving shade."

A recent survey showed that 90 percent of the people involved in the program have enough food to get them through the dry season. This is up from 10 percent three years ago. "These results are just the beginning of the change we hope to see happen, three hectares at a time!" writes VanderWees.

Partners Worldwide, a Christian Reformed Church affiliated organization, also works on food-related projects in Nicaragua.