Sustainable agriculture development is a tool to fight poverty. It’s a long-term investment of dollars and time and energy that La Semilla Ministries is committed to!
Luis Galan: Don Luis has been working with the minstry as a producer of beans for the past 3 growing cycles and has achieved what we call «GRUPO UNO» demonstrating good cultural practices and responsibility with crop inputs, including credit. Don Luis is from the community of Cañas Blancas and has a fairly diverse income. He is the caretaker of a plantation of advocados and plantains, he rents land to plant beans and sorghum each year, and he has a small piece of land himself where he has planted advocados. Diversification is certainly a part of a sustainable agriculture model.
A challenge that Don Luis and other Nicaraguan producers face is fair and just access to credit. It’s disappointing to know that the credit that is available to farmers runs from 48% interest annually all the way up to 120%. Those rates are hard on the viability of any business. So it’s a struggle to get ahead. Within strict guidelines, La Semilla Ministries provides credit at single digit rates to producers like Luis Galan, providing with a more affordable and viable future.
