Global Policy Forum

Why should people be starving in Nicaragua, asks the Union of Agricultural and Cattle Ranchers (UNAG), when the land used for coffee plantations has fertile soil, there is abundant water and an equable climate all year round. According to UNAG, Nicaragua's role in the world market since 1880 has been that of agro-exporter to countries in the north. Coffee accounts for 27% of Nicaragua's exports, and the coffee industry employs 100,000 people in Matagalpa alone.

But this year coffee prices on the world market dropped drastically, as they often do when there is overproduction on a global level. The World Bank, as part of its structural adjustment plans, has encouraged Asian countries such as Vietnam to export more and more coffee (as they have encouraged Nicaragua to do in the past) in order to get money to pay off their debts. The result of this glut of coffee on the world market has been devastating for Nicaraguan coffee producers. Farmers have had to lay off their workers and let their coffee rot on the vine. Without income, people cannot buy food, and even though the land is fertile, all land has been planted with coffee. But you can't eat coffee.

Perhaps we should ask, "Who is benefiting from this economic model?" Certainly not the thousands of starving coffee workers in Nicaragua. Nor coffee drinkers in the West who continue to pay between £1.40 and £2.00 for a cup of coffee. Large, transnational coffee distributors now get to pocket the difference.

Statement from the Union of Agricultural and Cattle Ranchers (UNAG)

"Diversification in coffee growing; A viable and sustainable alternative to ensure self-sufficiency in food production"

"Sadness and shame are the first emotions that affect us when we remember the 18 children who died of hunger on the coffee plantations and estates of Jinotega and Matagalpa. How many more have died for want of food in Nicaragua's other coffee growing regions?

Further questions then springs to mind: Couldn't the coffee estates perhaps produce food for those who produce and process the coffee? Is growing coffee incompatible with growing other crops? The truth is that a coffee estate can produce a wide variety of foodstuffs. This is not to say, however, that we are claiming self-sufficiency on coffee estates is going to provide the answer to the shameful "coffee" crisis.

We are simply seeking to relieve the disgraceful situation on Nicaraguan coffee farms by producing food so that there are no deaths from hunger. The 'campesino' to 'campesino' Programme of UNAG, Nueva Segovia, is proposing to" utilise land on coffee farms for the production of food crops", indeed on all land on the coffee estate that is suitable. The estate owners should hand over a piece of land so that their workers might be able to grow basic crops there, secure in the knowledge that the fruits of their own labour will be abundant and diverse; providing basic cereals, vegetables, small livestock, fish and fruit trees. This position has been proved to be successful by a number of case studies and verified by a number of expert sources.

We begin from the basic assumption that all coffee estates have fertile soil, abundant water and an equable climate all year round. There are many sustainable alternatives. A well tended milk goat can produce a minimum of two litres of milk, a beehive can produce 20 litres of honey, a small fish pond can provide excellent quality protein all year round, similarly rabbits in hutches. Diverse fruit and vegetable products could also be grown such as musaceas (1), citrus fruits, cassava, quisque (2), malanga (3), sweet potatoes. All of these alternate production strategies are viable on any coffee plantation.

It would be very important to study the example set by Colombia where coffee-growing areas also have excellent food production systems. Here each coffee smallholding produces no less than 15 types of food of vegetable or animal origin. Moreover, Colombia has spent no less that 30 years seeking alternatives to cope with possible crises affecting its golden berry coffee.

Nicaragua also offers an excellent case study. The example of the producer Justo Pastor Montecinos, a coffee grower in the Dipilto region, is instructive. At the same time as the 35 acres (4) of coffee that he cultivates on the plantations and their outskirts, he grows jocotes1, plantains, bananas and citrus fruits. The sale of these products enables him to employ five permanent workers throughout year as well as providing for family consumption.

Jairo Restrepo in Columbia made more money from growing papaws in the midst of his coffee farm than he received from coffee. Moreover he did not use any type of agrochemical, only organic products from his own farm, producing excellent yields of tomatoes and kidney beans.

The provision of sufficient food for the workers on coffee farms is a real possibility and a moral obligation. The solution to coffee's other problems will come later. First and foremost workers have to eat; and the provision of decent food is another moral imperative that Nicaraguan coffee farms are capable of providing. There are many other unreported Nicaraguan examples, which can be classified under the heading of 'coffee growing diversification and food production'. The current crisis in coffee growing is forcing us to search in that direction.

Finally let us look at one further instructive case study. Jose Luis Cerrato, who is responsible for monitoring agreements with coffee growers made by the bank, produces in the municipality of Murra. Among his coffee plantations he grows cassava, potatoes, bananas, plantains and citrus fruits. He keeps his coffee plantations free of weeds by making use of 40 peliguey sheep. The sheep in turn produce meat, both for consumption and for sale, they eat weeds, therefore destroying them without contaminating the soil, water or the crops This process is aided by the production of ample supplies of fertilizer in its most natural, manure."

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