Post Type: Blog

Strategic partnership helps rural farmers gain access to gourmet markets and repair the wounds of the past.

For thousands of years, sesame seeds have been a key ingredient for a wide variety of Greek foods, from tahini to sesame bar snacks to Greece’s most popular street food, the indistinguishable, sesame-covered rings known as koulouri.

Sesame is deeply ingrained in Greek traditions and cuisine and as Europe’s largest importer of sesame seeds, it is a great starting point to examine how specialty markets emerge searching for flavorful and artisanal processed sesame seeds.

While Greece imports the majority of its 39,000 MT of sesame from Nigeria and Turkey and accounts for 22% of Europe’s sesame imports, countries like Germany are also in the market to sprinkle tasty sesame seeds on its baked goods.

José Hernández, the founder of gourmet exporter SumaPaz Foods has traveled to Europe enough to see there is a potential for artisanal sesame from Colombia to satisfy even the most demanding gourmet chefs.

In 2018, Hernández discovered the secrets of Colombia’s sesame in the hills of Montes de María, which are located in the Caribbean region and have an ideal climate for cultivating sesame. In the municipality of Córdoba Tetón, SumaPaz began working with families involved in sesame for generations.

“Our microclimates give our foods nuanced flavors. Besides Greece, our sesame is popular in Germany, where they like breads with a sesame that is sweeter and less astringent than normal sesame,” explains Hernández.

A History of Survival

The story of sesame in this region of Colombia mirrors the ugly violence that engulfed it in the early 2000s, when the leftist group FARC expanded its control of the region and the rise of paramilitarism caught rural communities in the middle, leaving villages full of victims in its wake. Rebels and paramilitary groups moved through rural towns stealing the communities’ most important assets: livestock.

“We came to rely more and more on sesame. We are all victims, we were all displaced, and we all lived moments that we would prefer to forget. But here we are doing everything we can to make sure the violence doesn’t happen again,” says Yimmis Severinche, who helped to create the National Federation of Sesame Farmers back in 2002.

Severinche and her neighbors developed ways to transform sesame into new products, putting sesame-based pastes and drinks on the table of every family in the municipality. These families used innovation, but the violence left a hole in their community.

To help rebuild these communities, USAID facilitated a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that includes SumaPaz, government agencies, and over 600 families from the region. The PPP was signed in 2023 and is valued at nearly USD $1.8 million. The PPP’s objective is to increase production and processing of artisanal sesame, promote organic certification, and establish sustainable market channels, especially in high value markets like Europe and USA.

First step was gaining organic certification, which SumaPaz supported with its own resources. To see the certification through, under the PPP, USAID helped to form a micro enterprise of young agronomists in the region called Integra.

“The focus today is the search for sustainability, but that sustainability is only possible if there is a functional value chain that works. Integra fills an important gap to provide services that rural farmers need,” says Hernandez.

En Route to Europe

With organic certification under their belt and technical support from SumaPaz, sesame farmers have already exported four containers of high-quality sesame to buyers in the European market. Each container equals approximately 18 tons of sesame for gourmet food buyers in Greece and Germany.

Thanks to the increased capacity built by the PPP, SumaPaz offered sesame farmers future contracts as well as a purchasing price at least 50 percent higher than the price of sesame in the Colombian market.

“The social fabric that was once broken by the violence is beginning to repair itself. USAID works with the communities and builds trust. These farmers have more confidence and are open to the tools to work on mending the social fabric,” according to Hernandez.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

 

Cross-posted from USAID Medium

USAID is committed to placing Indigenous communities at center of locally led development

In Latin America, Indigenous communities are an essential part of efforts to address development challenges — such as issues with equity, government transparency, and environmental sustainability — and they amplify development gains far beyond the life of programs.

USAID supports the efforts of Indigenous communities to drive change in the countries and communities where they live, promoting their culture, expanding their businesses, strengthening governance over their lands, and protecting their rights and resources.

Read about three countries in the region where USAID engages Indigenous communities and elevates them as critical partners in local development.

Garifuna Farmers Place Honduran Vetiver on the Map

The Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people of Honduras traditionally grow vetiver grass for medicinal use. Some farmers cultivate the aromatic crop for the essential oil made from its roots — a product highly sought after by the international beauty and wellness industry as a key ingredient in perfumes and aromatherapy.

USAID is partnering with Garifuna vetiver producers to meet that demand, improving farm productivity, creating jobs, and building markets.

A USAID-led partnership with Garifuna-run enterprise Nueva Luz and Honduran firm EFI Solutions sees strengthening the vetiver value chain as an innovative way to increase prosperity for Garifuna communities.

The partnership is pioneering sustainable commercial-scale cultivation of vetiver with six Garifuna communities in the country’s north coastal region. By engaging small Honduran agribusinesses directly into the supply chain, the approach goes beyond simply boosting crop productivity for farmers. It aims to generate employment opportunities for other members of the Garifuna community, including women and young people, and ensure fair market price for crops.

The quality of crops harvested from the vetiver project has exceeded expectations, and now Garifuna producers sell vetiver to Europe-based cosmetic companies. From July 2019 through September 2023, USAID helped EFI generate $7.5 million in sales and over 900 local jobs.

The success prompted a feasibility study to construct the first-ever vetiver oil extraction plant in Honduras. Garifuna farmers hope this will help the country’s vetiver industry to become a bigger global competitor and to generate economic opportunity for many more Hondurans.

Women Artists Create a ‘Brilliant’ Brand in Peru

A group of Indigenous women in Peru are using their artistic talent to connect past to future.

The artists are members of the Shipibo-Conibo Indigenous community located near the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon.

For centuries, elders have passed down ancestral embroidery, weaving, hand-dying, and painting skills to younger generations. Artists typically have never earned much income from selling handicrafts because the community spent much of its time farming to support itself.

In 2021, a group of Shipibo-Conibo women in the Peruvian Amazon joined together to create and sell traditional geometrically-patterned art, richly colored textiles, and distinctive jewelry. They dreamed of becoming as skilled at running a business as they were at making handicrafts.

To help reach their business goals, the group connected with USAID & Cedro’s Alliance for the Amazon project in 2022. The women registered their venture as a formal business and named it Sanken Beka, a Shipibo-Conibo phrase for “brilliant women.” The USAID-supported project also provided training in financial management, product sales, and digital marketing.

With that support, and recent national and international recognition, Sanken Beka crafts are selling well. The group netted nearly $1,500 in monthly sales over the last three months. They received an additional marketing boost when three textiles traveled aboard the Peruvian Navy’s BAP Unión tall ship, which recently toured ports around the world as an ambassador of the country’s products and tourism.

Indeed the “brilliant women” of Sanken Beka are a shining beacon of Indigenous cultural identity and economic success in their community.

Watch this video to learn more about the women and art of Sanken Beka.

Ecuador’s Indigenous & Mestizo Youth Set a Vision for the Amazon

Indigenous youth in Ecuador will tell you that any commitment to solve environmental challenges should include and empower young people to take action.

Like their elders, Indigenous youth strive for profitable livelihoods that safeguard against deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. They also struggle to ensure decision makers listen to their ideas and protect their rights and resources.

USAID is listening and taking action. Implemented through the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Sustainable Environment and Livelihoods for a Vital Amazon (SELVA) project works with the Siona, Siekopai, and Shuar Indigenous People in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region to help them reduce deforestation, develop sustainable livelihoods, and know their decision making and land management rights.

In April, USAID and WWF hosted the First Encounter of Diverse Youth for Conservation in Sucumbios, which brought together for the first time 67 Indigenous and mestizo youth to help shape the future of their Amazon. The workshop used art and creative group activities to encourage reflection and collaboration around environmental safekeeping, advocacy, and inclusive representation.

After a four-year hiatus, the World Bank resumed its annual Land Conference in Washington, DC. Attendees from around the world convened in mid-May to connect and learn about innovations in the international land sector. 

USAID was busy throughout the week: USAID’s Chief Climate Officer Gillian Caldwell spoke on a panel on forest tenure and Indigenous Peoples, while members of the Land and Resource Governance (LRG) Division organized a session on the green energy transition and also took part in conversations on global land policies, women’s land rights, and climate adaptation. The LRG team also held “booth talks” in the Bank’s atrium, chatting with other conference attendees on a number of topics, including participatory land mapping, critical minerals, impact evaluations, and women’s land rights. 

Staff from several USAID activities also participated in the conference. The Integrated Natural Resource Management activity presented its recent report, Tanzania Demand for Documentation Study, and the Integrated Land and Resource Governance II activity facilitated three panels focused on 1) cross-ministry coordination for land policy implementation; 2) land administration challenges amid climate change; and 3) innovative approaches to unlock rural and Indigenous women’s land rights.

Post-conference, members of the LRG Division shared some of their key takeaways from the week. Much of the team’s reflections center on climate change or Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). Both intersectional issues are ongoing priorities that help frame the LRG Division’s research and programming. In fact, land and resource governance is a prominent theme in USAID’s 2022-2030 Climate Strategy, as well as in the Agency’s 2020 Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PRO-IP), Local Capacity Strengthening Policy, and Rule of Law Policy. That’s because investing in land rights is critical for achieving positive development outcomes for IPLCs—including economic growth, empowerment, and biodiversity conservation—and is also necessary for achieving climate mitigation outcomes.

Check out some of the team’s thoughts below!

Karol Boudreaux, Senior Land and Resource Governance Advisor

A helpful takeaway came from David Kaimowitz’s work at the Tenure Facility, where they are supporting communities to rent (i.e., contract out) land mapping equipment to local governments and also to  create Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with governments to work as land service providers. Control of land and resources is associated with significant political, social, and economic power, and in a number of countries the rights of local communities to their land are impinged by government actors and their economic allies. This is an interesting way to “flip the script” and put local communities and governments in a somewhat different relationship, with altered power dynamics and information sharing.

Ioana Bouvier, Senior Spatial Science and Technology Advisor

Many land-intensive climate action initiatives, including carbon offsetting projects, have yet to recognize the role of land rights and the importance of engaging local communities from initial stages of the project. Land practitioners should be more actively engaged in the climate mitigation sector, including climate finance. Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Steven Lawry led a very compelling session on the concept of community stewardship and the importance of ensuring that local communities actively take part in the decisions about how land is managed in climate action projects.

Janet Nackoney, Land and Resource Governance Officer

There were several thoughtful presentations and discussions around social inclusion and gender, including those focused on gender norms change. Safiatu Alabi from Côte d’Ivoire spoke about the importance of understanding the delicate balance between social norms and cultural values when engaging in norms change programming. She stressed the importance of respecting the underlying socio-cultural values held by local communities when carrying out social norms change activities, so that these values are preserved. Safiatu highlighted how practitioners can work with communities to facilitate uptake of new social norms by building a collective vision that recognizes potential positive outcomes resulting from norms change interventions. Conversations also centered on the importance of engaging men and boys to support and actively promote gender equality and focusing on interventions that increase women’s economic empowerment to ensure that women can access markets, have greater control over resources, and participate in economic decision-making.

Caleb Stevens, Senior Advisor, Governance and Natural Environment

The Smithsonian and Conservation International are conducting cutting-edge research demonstrating that secure property rights for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities across South America significantly reduces deforestation, and that the bundle of rights that provide “ownership” is particularly important. Those are promising findings, but IPLCs need more support: Despite the proven ability of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to conserve biodiversity and reduce deforestation, and despite the fact that Indigenous and locally-owned land is profoundly affected by climate change, their lack of secure and documented land rights globally often leads to their exclusion from natural resource management decision-making processes. 

Chloe Cole, Natural Resources Officer

The land community can be louder and do more to define the narrative around the land tenure implications of the green energy transition, which includes the land needed for mining and technology deployment. Joan Carling from Indigenous Peoples Rights International spoke a lot about community co-ownership, equity sharing, and allowing for Indigenous voices. I think there’s a lot of work that the international land sector can do to fill in the details around Indigenous rights. What does that look like in regard to mining, solar energy, and other climate initiatives?

Cross-posted from SERVIR

When countries need to make sustainable decisions about how best to use their land, they need highly detailed and current information—but accurately measuring how much of a country is forested or not (including land used for farming or undergoing urban expansion) can be incredibly difficult. More and more countries like Nepal are using satellite technology to address this challenge and create their own land monitoring systems.

Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) represents a pivotal achievement and is poised to significantly enhance the country’s climate data and efforts to cut emissions and adapt to climate change. This system holds immense importance for assessing and overseeing the ever-changing landscape, which is crucial for the sustainable stewardship of Nepal’s natural resources.

Since 2018, SERVIR HKH has been continuously collaborating with Nepal’s Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC), the nationally mandated agency for forest cover data, to develop an operational NLCMS for Nepal.

The NLCMS uses publicly available satellite imagery like Landsat combined with robust methodologies to regularly generate annual land cover data for the entire country. Data from the land cover map, which includes the forest cover extent, is used to generate estimations of land-based greenhouse gas emissions from forest loss.

Why land data matters to Nepal

FRTC uses the land cover maps for national and international reporting on forest cover change and preparing a long-term strategy for achieving Nepal’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets for addressing climate change. It also serves as a foundational dataset to advance evidence-based planning and policy development.

The NLCMS addresses the challenges of long-term data gaps by providing consistent geospatial data crucial for various sectors such as forestry, climate action, and research. NLCMS data played a pivotal role in setting climate targets for Nepal’s commitments to the Paris Agreement and is being extensively used in forest degradation mapping, climate change action, and academic research.

Bimal Kumar Acharya, Senior Remote Sensing Officer from FRTC states, “The NLCMS results are useful in the planning and policy-making processes of Nepal’s federal, provincial, and local governments. It is also useful for reporting on Nepal’s national and international obligations.”

NLCMS land cover data has become the national data to help the government and members of civil society to understand the geographic distribution of different land cover types present in Nepal. The Government of Nepal, through FRTC, has adopted this system, establishing it as a credible and authentic data source for official use. The National Statistics Office uses the data and map for generating land cover statistics for international reporting, such as for the Second NDC, which was developed based on this data.

Collaboration for success and sustainability

Continuous capacity strengthening with relevant stakeholders in Nepal has been critical to the success and final endorsement and implementation of the NLCMS. The partners in Nepal have invested time and personal resources to efficiently contribute and co-develop the system and  advance a sustainable pathway for the NLCMS to be an essential platform for years to come.

Computing resources and expertise from SERVIR’s Applied Sciences Team member Peter Potapov from the University of Maryland significantly enhanced the value of the land cover map through the incorporation of Tree Canopy Cover, Tree Canopy Height, and various other data layers. These additional datasets have played a pivotal role in improving the overall accuracy and precision of the data included in the NLCMS.

“Our approach to co-developing the NLCMS product by partnering with the National Agency (FRTC) and Applied Science Team (University of Maryland) brought cutting-edge technologies and built the capacity and confidence of national stakeholders on the use of the new mapping method and the land cover data. The web-based, easy-to-use interface of the product is built utilizing a cloud processing platform and openly available time series satellite images, making the product efficient and replicable relatively easily at significantly low costs for any country annually anywhere in the world, ensuring the sustainability for the longer term.” – Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, Science and Data Lead, SERVIR-HKH

A USAID partnership is enabling the Colombian Government to move forward with its commitments to formalize land and reduce illicit crops.

With USAID support, Colombia’s National Land Agency delivered 83 land titles to families who have voluntarily substituted illicit crops in the municipality of Cáceres, Antioquia. The property titles correspond to over 1,200 hectares of rural land in the heart of Bajo Cauca, a zone affected by years of violence and narcotrafficking.

The land titles were delivered this year during the visit of US Director of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. Rahul Gupta. Before meeting landowners who have substituted illicit crops in exchange for land titles, Gupta joined government officials and the US Ambassador to Colombia, Francisco Palmieri, to fly over the region and see how illicit crop cultivation and illegal mining have affected the area.

“I want to express congratulations to these families who became proud owners of their land parcels. The families here today deserve to own their land in order to work on it and build a life where they can leave illicit crops behind. This is proof that rural development works, and should continue to be part of our holistic strategy.”

Transformation in Rural Colombia

Secure land tenure is the backbone of an innovative strategy aligned with Colombia’s new drug policy to encourage the voluntary substitution of illicit crops in exchange for land titling and a package of targeted support that includes food security provisions and investments in agriculture and infrastructure projects to promote territorial transformation.

Helping rural communities replace illicit crops with legal alternatives, increasing rural development, and supporting their transition to participate in formal markets instead of depending on illicit economies, is a pillar of Colombia’s new drug policy.

“It is a pleasure that finally a drug policy is not only about security, right? It is also about access to land and the vindication of the rights of our campesinos.” says Gloria Miranda, Director of Colombia’s coca substitution program

The Colombian government has already delivered over 600 land titles in Cáceres, and 150 of those are in the names of families who once grew illicit crops. Thanks to USAID support, the government is poised to deliver more than 1,300 land titles over the next year in Cáceres.

Securing Land Rights

USAID is supporting initiatives in Southern Tolima for rural women to understand and reclaim their rights to land

As part of the Rural Property and Land Administration Plan (POSPR) being implemented in Chaparral, USAID Land for Prosperity (LFP) partnered with Colombia’s Land Restitution Unit to host a series of workshops to empower rural women about their property rights, land ownership, the care economy, and gender-based violence. These workshops, called nucleos de exigibilidad, were piloted first in Ataco during POSPR implementation. During the sessions, 30 female leaders who are participating in land restitution and formalization processes shared their views of their territory and learned about gender-based violence with a focus on patrimonial and economic violence. The women met three times to discuss crucial topics for their personal growth and the one of their communities, as an opportunity to strengthen their leadership and promote gender equality in Southern Tolima.

Social, indigenous, afro-Colombian, and farmer leaders participated alongside presidents of community action boards and victims of the armed conflict. Some of them are beneficiaries of the POSPR implementation and others are in land restitution processes. These neighbors, although they share similar experiences and complex realities, had never met to talk.

The strategy was originally implemented in the municipality of Ataco and was recently extended to Chaparral, with the aim of building the capacity of these women so they can multiply their knowledge with their communities and neighborhoods. The work between the URT and LFP coordinates two important public policies: the one for rural property and land administration, and the one for land restitution.

“All exercises were focused on highlighting the role of women in society and identifying the different types of violence that women face. It was an opportunity to be clear about the relationship and the rights that women have to land,” says Héctor Canal, territorial director of the URT.

Advancing together towards our rights

The participants showed an unbreakable commitment in this process, becoming agents of change in their communities. Edna Liliana Castro, resident of the Guanábano Brasilia village, has stood out not just as a farmer but also as an influential leader, playing a valuable role in the implementation of the POSPR as a community volunteer. Community volunteers are vital, as they encourage the communities to participate, and disseminate the POSPR methodology and objectives so that people understand the benefits of titling their land.

Their involvement in the workshops was vital to strengthen their leadership in a community with a difficult history: “As social leaders in a rural community, unfortunately we are very forgotten. Peasant and rural women have always been forgotten. We weren’t very clear about our own rights, but in these spaces they taught us in a dynamic way, so we can share this knowledge with our communities, demanding the priority and value that women have.”

Edna also mentioned that the events strengthened the leadership of these women, regardless of their age: “During the workshops, women from different ages came together, from teenagers to senior citizens. Despite the age difference, we managed to build deep connections and mutual understanding, creating bonds that were so strong that we felt like a real family.”

Alcyra Carreño, resident of the urban area of Chaparral, said that the workshops allowed her to recognize the value of her own body as a temple, just like the action of claiming equal rights between men and women when it comes to land: “I would like for us women to become land and property owners. I have my small farm, but I don’t have a formal document that recognizes me as an owner, even though I work the land with my son.”

The last session of the workshops coincided with International Women’s Day, and during the event the women held a discussion with public officials from government entities such as the Agency for Rural Development, the Rural Development and the Community Development and Health Municipal Secretaries, and the Municipal Council. The women were grateful for the opportunity to advocate and take action in favor of their rights, both in rural and urban environments.

“These events help us understand that us women can continue fighting for our rights, and that it is important for many women to feel supported, as we are the core of our families and communities.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

USAID is working with Colombia’s private sector to formalize land and mobilize funds to improve schools and other services.

In 2020, when Antioquia’s Secretary of Education unveiled an investment plan to improve the infrastructure of rural public schools and increase attendance rates, the project quickly came to a halt, because the government is not allowed to inject public funds into assets and services on land without a registered land title. All over Antioquia, hundreds of isolated schools have been built on open land, on properties donated by large landowners, or simply on land that never belonged to anyone.

Without a land title, these schools continue to deteriorate and miss out on much-needed public funds.

Formalizing land in Colombia is a long and costly process that involves several government agencies. Rural families who can afford the costs of processing a land title, including lawyer and land surveyor fees, often end up waiting five years or longer for a land title. Relying on local and regional governments, which are cash-strapped or lack technical capacity, is even more unlikely to result in a registered land title.

In Bajo Cauca, one of Antioquia’s poorest regions, land informality rates are some of the highest in Colombia.

What if the private sector destined social development investment towards land tenure security?

Interview with a same-sex couple who requested a joint title to formalize their property in Chaparral, Tolima.

Challenging prejudices and building a more equal future where differences are respected, Mauro Julián Sánchez and Nelson Fabián Solano, a gay couple who requested the joint title of their rural parcel in Chaparral, Tolima, share their experience as part of the implementation of the Rural Property and Land Administration Plan (POSPR) led by the National Land Agency with support from the USAID Land for Prosperity Activity. To date, the large-scale land formalization initiative in Chaparral has resulted in three joint title applications that benefit same sex couples.

What is the story of your parcel and how did you purchase it?

Mauro: We each lived in our parents’ house, but we wanted to have a joint parcel, something that belonged to both of us. We decided to buy a parcel to have something that was ours. However, we still don’t have the registered property title to our name. The parcel is two hectares and we work on it with our parents. We grow cassava, plantain and cacao in an organic way, without chemicals, to take care of the environment. We are also dabbling in aquaculture, creating ponds for fish farming.

What was your motivation to submit the joint title application to the National Land Agency?

Nelson: We are the kind of couple that is not common, that sometimes is frowned upon in some rural areas, but we are breaking stereotypes, which is beautiful. We have to start teaching communities that the world is dressing up in diversity. Our motivation is to make sure diversity is understood and respected, specifically when it comes to land formalization and access.

What does it mean to you to have your land titled as a same sex couple?

Mauro: It means a lot to us. In rural areas, homosexuality is sometimes negatively perceived, but our idea is to settle down and to be economically stable in the countryside. We want to access benefits such as loans to continue expanding our productive project and become a business. We want to be role models, show the community that the countryside can be profitable not just through production, but also through transformation. We don’t want to be seen just through discriminatory eyes, we want to show that we are capable of doing things better than a straight couple.

Do you think this process highlights the importance of a gender and inclusion approach for the LGBTIQ+ community when it comes to land access?

Nelson: The inclusion of every person, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, is fundamental to guarantee equality and respect for the rights under land use planning and administration. We participated in a registration session to promote the inclusion of the LGBTIQ+ population in the formalization process, as part of the implementation of the government’s agrarian reform outlined in the Peace Accords.

What would you say to other same sex couples that are considering applying for joint titling?

Mauro: We want to tell them that, regardless of differences, as same sex couples we have the same rights and abilities. We should work together and show the world that homosexuality is not something out of the ordinary. Submitting an application for joint titling is a way to confirm our equality, to give visibility and promote the acceptance of diversity by the wider society, when it comes to land access.

Do you think that improved access to land and property rights helps close existing inequality gaps and reduce gender-based violence?

Nelson: Yes, access to land is an opportunity to close inequality gaps in the life projects of same sex couples. It gives us access to resources and projects offered by regional government entities, providing us with more development and improvement possibilities. We want to change the perception that some people have of us, and show society that we can achieve our goals, overcoming the obstacles that limit our objectives.

What does land mean to the LGBTIQ+ community?

Mauro: Land has an important meaning, especially for us, as we have our roots in this area that was hard hit by the conflict. Access to land means food security. Land is life, it is our origin and our destiny. From land we receive everything we need as human beings. That is why we have to work hard for its conservation, recognizing the value and respect we owe it.

A Gold Medal

This year at the Cacao of Excellence Awards, Colombian cacao beans garnered the world’s attention. Competing with more than 220 cacao samples from over 50 countries, Workakao, a farmer-owned cooperative based in Meta, was awarded a gold medal and shared the big stage with 18 of the world’s top cacao producers.

Wokakao’s criollo bean–the only Colombian sample awarded a medal–was described as “complex” but “mild”, a “creamy moderate cacao” that is well balanced with a “pleasant caramel note that lingers in the chocolatey long-lasting aftertaste.”

Chocolatey

Workakao’s winning sample was the result of hard work to improve quality, yields, and processing through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that was facilitated by USAID in 2021. Motivated by the stakeholders of the PPP, Workakao has encouraged its 900+ cacao farming families to sell their “wet” cocoa beans to its collection center, enabling the cooperative to standardize post-harvest processing and achieve a consistently higher-quality bean after fermentation.

“The gold medal is the result of the work we have been doing with the support of PPP stakeholders and the cacao farmer field schools that taught us to apply the acquired knowledge on our farms,” said Leonel Murrillo, a member of Agroguamal, one of the cacao organizations under Workakao.”

In the wake of the historic moment, USAID’s Land for Prosperity Activity wanted to take advantage of the momentum. Farmers under additional USAID-facilitated PPPs in the cacao value chain traveled around the country for multi-day experience-sharing workshops to learn more about how Workakao and Meta-based producers are improving cacao processing and marketing as well as how to improve the integration of youth and women into the value chain.

The 16 cacao organizations from Cauca, Meta, Norte de Santander, and Nariño met with key actors to share valuable experiences related to technical processes and management of the bean, operating farmer associations, training rural farmers across a large area, and finding niche export markets for quality aroma cacao. The farmers also shared their experiences with organic certification and environmentally-friendly farming models based on commitments to end deforestation.

“We were immensely happy because the gold medal represents the work of our entire cacao community. It also has injected us with strength and hard work, because the real commitment starts now. We need to be able to sustain the quality of our cacao and give our products an added value, so the benefits reach our communities well into the future.”

– Leonel Murillo, cacao farmer and member of the Workakao Cooperative, Meta, Colombia

The Women at the Heart of Cacao

“We have learned so much on this journey. We have learned that we need to prioritize quality in order to reach buyers willing to pay a better price. Workakao is an example for all of us to continue working towards that quality,” explained Arcelia Prieto, a cacao farmer in Norte de Santander and member of Asoprocanor (Association of Cacao Producers from Norte de Santander and Catatumbo).

Prieto joined the events to share her experience with the creation and promotion of the Women with a Heart of Cacao (Mujeres con Corazón Cacaotero) strategy, which has engaged 70 women producers from the conflictive region of Catatumbo, which is located in northeastern Colombia along the border with Venezuela. The empowerment strategy encourages the development of new capacities of women farmers, including technical skills to process and transform their cacao into final products like chocolate.

 

“What we have learned here with Workakao is that we have to start small, from the base, in order to be successful.”

– Arcelia Prieto, cacao farmer from Norte de Santander.

The women-led strategy also takes into account other aspects of their lives and business such as who will replace them and take over their cacao plantations. The long history of illicit economies in the region and the border with Venezuela have made it difficult to keep children safe and insulated from risky behavior and illegal activities. To confront this harsh reality, the women have incorporated their children into the cacao plantations to teach them essential farming techniques and how the bean is processed.

“As mothers, we all suffer as we watch our children fall victim to drug addiction or illegal activities. They are losing their childhood. So we have included our children to be part of the agribusiness. It’s important to show them from an early age. They are the future and have the potential to show the country that Catatumbo is not just a place for illicit economies.”

– Arcelia Prieto of Asoprocanor.

100 Years of Cacao

To understand how cacao can be a driving force of family integration, the women of Catatumbo need to look no further than the farm of Betsabeth Álvarez, a cacao legend in Colombian hailing from the municipality of Padilla, Cauca. Betsabeth celebrated her 101st birthday this year and is still participating, hand in hand with her family and community, in the marketing strategy of her now famous chocolate balls: Choculas.

“If you ask me, chocolate meets all your nutritional needs. It will make you strong and improve your memory. Look at me, this is life, and I am happy,” Betsabeth said.

Betsabeth started her life dedicated to cacao as a young child tending her grandparents’ and parents’ trees, who taught her how to process cacao with a mortar and pestle.

“My entire family is involved, my grandchildren, my nieces and nephews, everybody is part of it, and I hope they never let it disappear, because this is a beautiful tradition.”

In addition to cultivation and processing, the experience sharing events focus on land rights, women’s rights, and a better understanding of the care economy. Most of the women who work in land and agricultural activities also spend a large part of their time doing unpaid care work: such as caring for, feeding, and raising children, as well as activities that are vital for a healthy society, such as caring for the elderly and disabled.

“Being with women cacao farmers from other regions has allowed us to recognize, recover, and share ancestral knowledge that is in all of us. Afro-Colombian women have that feeling of being resilient to protect our communities.”

– Fanny Rodríguez, member of the cacao farming group from Rescate Las Varas, an Afro-Colombian community council in Tumaco, Nariño.

Rediscovering History

It is believed that cacao first grew in the Amazon basin and then spread north and south throughout the Americas, including to the Aztec and the Mayan civilizations, who developed successful processing techniques. For them, the plant was a symbol of wealth, and its beans were used as currency.

Today, cacao is grown primarily in tropical climates around the Equator. Approximately half of the world’s cacao comes from the Ivory Coast and Ghana in West Africa. Despite ideal climatic conditions for cacao cultivation, Colombia is not even in the top 10 cacao-producing countries. Low levels of education and aging cacao crops have limited small-scale cacao farmers productivity and earning potential.

A Future for Cacao in Colombia

In 2022, Colombia produced more than 62,000 metric tons of cacao beans, positioning it within the top 20. Unfortunately, Colombia’s cacao exports are minimal and the majority of what is produced is sold domestically. For now, this is one of the challenges that cacao producers like Workakao have solved.

Over the last four years, Land for Prosperity has facilitated the creation of seven PPPs related to the cacao value chain that include over 33,600 farmers, 41% of which are women. In many parts of Colombia, such as Tumaco’s Pacific coast and the mountains of Northern Cauca, women represent half of the workforce.

“USAID has been there for us since the beginning. They have helped us obtain training, they come to our farms to teach us about becoming organic farmers, and above all, they have helped us become visible to a market that did not exist before.”
– Enith Zanabria, cacao producer from Meta and member of Workakao cooperative.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure