2008

Sustainable development in lands awarded to farmers as a result of the Guatemala Peace Accords

The context

In the Peace agreements signed in Guatemala in 1996, after 30 years of armed conflict, the Government pledged to facilitate access to land for poor farmers, creating a public body for these effects: Land Fund (Fontierra). The Fund provides to farmers, organized or individually, financing for the purchase or lease of lands, for the legalization of these, and provides technical and socio-economic advice.

The Department of Retalhuleu is located in the region southwest of Guatemala, which is irrigated by various rivers and, due to its varied climate, has a use of land suitable for the sowing of all types of crops...

The project to evaluate

In the Las Pilas village, belonging to the municipality of Retalhuleu, was established in 1995 a group of farmers formed by 100 poor families who, with the support of CEIDEC and through a credit granted by Fontierra, managed to buy the Providence farm -located in the neighbour municipality of Champerico- for a price that is approximately equivalent to about 840,000 Euros.

The Goal of this project was to give sufficient means to this group of farmers to repay the credit within 12 years of time and develop their settlement in the estate. The project worked in several areas: agricultural production and technical training on crops; genus; community management, and infrastructure construction.