My Experience: Campesino a Campesino
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Reflections on Sustainable Agriculture in Latin America
---------------- Farmers helping their brothers, so that they can help themselves…to find solutions and not be dependent on the technician or on the bank. That is Campesino a Campesino. - Argelio Gonzales, Santa Lucia, Nicaragua, 1991 ----------------
The Mayans were campesinos (peasants) from the eroded, poverty stricken western Highlands of Guatemala. Most Highland farmers had taken out loans for Green Revolution seed, fertilizer, and pesticides in the early 1970s, only to see their production fall when, over time, fertilizers ruined the natural fertility of their soil, leading to massive erosion of their fragile slopes. But, with the help of a retired soils engineer and a development agency, this group of farmers had figured out how to conserve soil and water, and were increasing food production by 100 to 200 percent, even as they eliminated expensive external inputs like fertilizers, hybrid seeds, and pesticides. Though their Spanish was rudimentary, they used parables, stories, and humor to share their knowledge of soil and water conservation, fertility, and crop improvement. Agricultural development was not presented as a modern break with a backwards past, but as a logical outcome of clear thinking and compassion, and love of farming, family, nature, and community. Though they relied on centuries-old tradition and farming knowledge, the Mayan were agricultural innovators, always experimenting with new ways to improve production by working with the ecology of their farm system. They built terraces to conserve precious soil and water, planted cover crops for fertility and weed control, rotated and mixed their crops, saved their best seeds, and constantly tried out new plants developed from natural species. The Mayans did not try to convince the Mexicans of their innovations. Rather, they insisted that everyone experiment with new things on a small scale first to see how well they worked. The Mayans also saw themselves as students, respecting the Mexicans’ deep, lifelong knowledge of their own particular land and climate. All they asked for in return was that the Mexicans share their new knowledge with others, which they did.
For thirty years, the Movimiento Campesino a Campesino (MCAC), now with several hundred thousand farmer-promoters, has helped farming families in the rural villages of Latin America improve their livelihoods and conserve their natural resources. The promoters of MCAC have shown that, given the chance to generate and share agroecological knowledge freely amongst themselves, smallholders are perfectly capable of developing sustainable agriculture, even under highly adverse conditions. The capacity to develop agriculture locally is not only the key to sustainable agricultural development, but, for campesinos, it is a matter of survival. This explains in a very fundamental way why the movement has spread as widely as it has. It works! The methods practiced by Campesino a Campesino are often found in development projects run by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughout Latin America. But the spread of agroecological knowledge through NGO projects and paid technicians is slow and expensive. Once project money dries up or NGOs move on, village agricultural development often comes to a halt. Campesino a Campesino’s movement-driven approach to sustainable agricultural development is based on local farmer capacities for innovation and solidarity. This allows communities to continually respond to the perpetual uncertainties of climate, market, and environmental shocks—with or without the presence of technicians and NGOs.
Although land in Nicaragua had been distributed under the revolutionary Agrarian Reform law, the government was unable to supply seeds, tractors, irrigation, or technical services. There was plenty of enthusiasm for peasant agriculture, but not many resources to do anything about it. Hence, the self-reliant techniques of Campesino a Campesino were enthusiastically received. One day, late in 1988, the minister of agriculture took the podium at the First National Convention of Sandinista Cooperatives to explain the country’s agricultural development strategy. The 2,000 campesino delegates politely listened to the minister as he began to extol the virtues of the Agrarian Reform. Then, suddenly from somewhere in the middle of the
“I just want to show all of you what the Campesino School for Soil and Water Conservation is producing in Santa Lucía, Boaco,” he shouted. “This bean plant has over 60 pods and we’ve produced them with 80 and as high as 120,” he continued to a truly impressed audience. “I invite all of you to come to Santa Lucía to see and learn soil conservation! As a token of our esteem, I want to present our minister of agriculture with this bean plant, to show him what we patriotic campesinos can do!” Don Ernesto made his way to the open-mouthed minister of agriculture at the podium amid the cheers of the campesino delegates. From that time, campesinos from across Nicaragua arrived in Santa Lucía to learn about sustainable agriculture from farmers just like themselves. Farmers began working together to implement soil and water conservation and to re-generate the natural fertility of their soils. Working in teams, farmers experimented and shared their knowledge. The key to sustainability was innovation. The secret to widespread adoption of sustainable practices was farmer to farmer solidarity. In the absence of government support for agriculture, the movement grew rapidly from village level projects into a movement. ---------------- One thing that has worked is being able to share experiences with other compañeros from other places and countries like Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, and others. We have had these opportunities through the Campesino a Campesino Movement. We feel like we are not alone, like there are people interested around the world who add their “grain of sand” to the process in this movement. There are many, and many have been fortunate. This has allowed us to build and advance as a Campesino a Campesino Movement. —Rogelio Sanchez, Vicente Guerrero, Mexico ---------------- This article was adapted from the author’s book, Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture, recently published by Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy.  NEXT “FRONTLINES” ARTICLE: Interview - Eat Here with Brian Halweil
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