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Mitigating the effects of climate change in rural Nicaragua

2nd part of an interview with Pedro Haslam, President of the IDR and FENIAGRO
Interview and translation by Karla Jacobs
November 3rd 2009

Pedro Haslam is the President of the Institute of Rural Development (IDR) and a member of the Board of Directors of the recently established Nicaraguan Institute for the Promotion of the Cooperative Sector (INFOCOOP). He is also President of the Nicaraguan Federation of Agro Industrial Cooperatives (FENIAGRO) which is one of the biggest organizations of cooperatives in Nicaragua representing over 27,000 small farming families.

In this second part of the interview Haslam talks in depth about the plans the Rural Agricultural Public Sector (SPAR) has to mitigate the effects of the recent drought provoked by El Niño which have been felt in several municipalities of northern, western and central Nicaragua during the last few months. To read the first part of the interview about the history of the cooperative movement in Nicaragua click here.

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The effects of El Niño in Nicaragua

KJ: I would like to talk a bit about the drought caused by El Niño which affected different parts of the country during the last few months of the rainy season. What specific effects does the Rural Agricultural Public Sector (SPAR) anticipate during the next few months in the areas affected by the drought?

PH: To talk about the drought or El Niño is to talk about another of the crises that exist in the world - the crisis caused by climate change. And the first thing I want to clarify about climate change is that it is a crisis that was not provoked by countries like Nicaragua, but that we are very negatively affected by. The same applies to the financial crisis, the energy crisis, the food crisis. All these crises originate in the "developed" countries.

With regards to the climate crisis we are severely affected in Nicaragua. Today there is a geographical division in Nicaragua that didn't used to exist - now we have dry zones and humid zones which we didn't used to have. We are affected almost every year now by hurricanes, droughts. Our soil has been degraded.

This year we have been affected by another period of this cyclical crisis. The thing is, that the cycles are getting shorter. In other words we experience hurricanes, flooding and droughts more frequently as time goes by.

Intensify third crop cycle to guarantee seed production

Currently, the Production Cabinet, which is what we call the SPAR, is working on these issues. We recognize that certain areas have been affected by less intense rainfall during the second crop cycle (siembra de postrera). So right now our plan is to intensify sowing for the third crop cycle (siembra de apante) in those areas where a third crop is possible like the Caribbean Coast, Nueva Guinea, Río San Juan.

President Daniel has instructed seed production activity to be intensified as part of a contingency plan in order to ensure the availability of seeds for the first crop cycle (siembra de primera) of next year.

KJ: Is that because it is assumed that farmers whose crops failed during the second crop cycle of this year won't have seeds to sow next year?

PH: Yes. What farmers normally do is save seed from one cycle to sow for the next cycle. So when one crop cycle fails many farmers are left without seeds. In the case of the State there is a large organized effort to guarantee seed production during the first cycle for the second cycle, during the second cycle for the third cycle and during the third cycle for the first cycle of the next year.

So, right now a special plan to guarantee seed production is being carried out. This plan is being coordinated by INTA [the Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology].

We want to support people in such a way that they can produce their own food

Why did I start by talking about production? Because one of the main objectives of this government is to recuperate people's dignity. Dignity is one of our ancestral and revolutionary values.

We have said that what we should do is support farmers so they can produce their own food, and so they can have some left over to sell in order to cover the cost of other things they need which cannot be produced by working the land.

So right now we are focussing our efforts on the zones where the third crop cycle is possible. We are implementing poverty mitigation programs providing people with the tools they need to produce.

We have been in meetings with the FAO [the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization], with the World Food Program, with the World Bank, with all the organizations that work on the issue of food security in order to coordinate all the different efforts that the government is directing.

Contingency plans, not emergency plans

But at the same time it is necessary to say that we are not in an emergency situation as many have tried to make out. There is no famine in the country. We must be clear on this point, the drought caused by El Niño is not provoking a lack of food in the country. We are not at that stage. It is important to be clear about that.

Yes we are working on contingency plans. Not emergency plans. They are two different things. We are working on contingency plans to prevent an emergency situation. We are working to avoid the need for food handouts. However, if a situation should arise where a certain community or set of communities experiences a lack of food and the only solution is food handouts, then the government would do that. This government would not let anybody die of hunger. 

But it is important to emphasize that there is no famine in Nicaragua. What there has been is a media campaign aimed at creating the impression that there is an emergency in the country. And that campaign is aimed to a certain extent to influence domestic opinion, but more than anything it aims to influence international opinion. The objective is to create the impression that the FSLN government is an inoperable government, that it is insensitive to social problems.

There was famine during Enrique Bolaños' government when the country was affected by the international coffee price crisis. Many children died of hunger on the highways at that time.

Today there is absolutely no sign of famine. And the different government institutions are organized, we are prepared to confront the situation caused by El Niño.

The IDR has mitigation projects in affected areas

The IDR is carrying out what we call a family project in 33 municipalities which have been identified as the worst hit by the drought. Some people may say that the IDR has a more agro industrial focus now and that we have forgotten about rural families in drier areas.

But no, we are supporting families in those areas with a micro-irrigation project. For example we are working in Boaco and Chontales where we have a project that aims to create more jobs in rural areas with backyard production among other things. We have also been facilitating community wells. MAG-FOR [the Ministry of Agriculture] also has its own programs along similar lines.

In other words, we are organized and we are leading the process of mitigation. We are analysing the impact of some of our programs. For example if we are providing people with farm animals and those animals are going to compete with the members of the family for food in the dry season, then we have to review that situation.

So, yes, we are the mitigation process is in progress. And in Nicaragua we have food reserves. We have been looking into that. The country has not only the food reserves in ENABAS [the State Basic Food Company] where there are more than three months worth of reserves as demanded by the international organizations that specialize on those issues. But we should remember that the reserves small farmers and other producers have at home or on their farm, those all form part of the national food reserves. Because the vast majority of farmers and producers keep as much corn and beans as they can for the year.

KJ: It's interesting to hear that you feel certain that if there were food shortages in any given area the government would be willing to provide food handouts. It could well become a real problem because there are sectors of the rural population, mainly the most impoverished sectors, who do not have the option of buying food if their harvests fail.

Maybe you can expand more on your comment that the government would be willing to resort to food handouts if it was necessary in certain areas. It would also be useful if you could mention the municipalities most affected by the drought.

The most affected municipalities

PH: There is a list of the most affected areas which includes the municipalities in Madriz, León, Chinandega, certain municipalities in Matagalpa mainly the ones that border on the department of Managua, a couple of municipalities of Boaco.

The important thing is that the Sandinista government, the FSLN, has a bigger and more varied territorial organization network than almost any other party in any other country. We aren't just talking about the Citizen Power Councils, there are the cooperatives, the communal associations, women's organizations. In other words, the government has a great diversity of organizations and of channels of information which provide us with fresh information, with trustworthy information about the situation at a grass roots level.

And of course the government institutions are working with the FAO and the other organizations like the WFP in order to establish a joint criteria regarding the situation so as to permit the highest possible level of coordination and effectiveness of our actions.

We don't want to create more dependency among the population

The issue of food handouts is very delicate for the government because we don't want to create more dependency among the population on programs or institutions. When I say that we are working to reinstate people's dignity what I mean is that the government knows that people feel good if they are producing their own food. 

We work to create sustainability for people with regards to their ability to establish a productive base, even if that base is very small. The important thing is that it is their productive base which will guarantee, if tomorrow the World Food Program doesn't turn up, that they can produce their own food.

For example, if there is a well in the community and between all of us we can carry out the necessary maintenance or install a micro irrigation system, which could be really rustic, but if I can do that with the rest of my community then at some point in the future when no foreign or national organization is helping me, I can produce my own food.

The crisis provoked by climate change isn't just going to affect us once. Like I said earlier, the cycles are increasingly short. So we need to get these communities producing food. We need to help people generate life in their communities. It's not that we have all the resources we need to solve everyone's problems but at least we are working to solve specific problems in specific areas.

I always say to people: "thank God that the FSLN is in government, and that Daniel Ortega is at the front of that government." Because in these times of crisis I don't dare to think what sort of a situation we would be in if we had a neoliberal government.

The government's efforts to stabilize food prices

KJ: Changing the subject, Pedro, I have heard different people say things like, "yes, maybe the country is producing more food, but the prices never go down." I wonder what you have to say about that perception from part of the population. I know it is a very complicated issue. 

PH: When you talk about fluctuating prices you are talking about inflation. In this country there has been no inflation in 2009 according to official statistics. But, one of the unofficial indicators of inflation that the general public feels is the price of basic products at the point of sale.

[In the past the prices of the most basic products have been very unstable as a result of the effect of speculation. However, over the last few years] when the there is an attempt on the speculative market to send prices soaring the government can activate instruments, like ENABAS, not to regulate but to stabilize the price.

ENABAS is used as a price stabilizing instrument. One must be clear about that because the State does not regulate prices. Although many think it should do. I would say the majority of poor people in this country would like the State to regulate food prices.

The price of basic products sold at the ENABAS supervised community run points of sale is established by the State. And then there is the other market, the free market where things can be bought and sold at any price.

The number and coverage of the community run points of sale supervised by ENABAS has increased significantly. They are not only in the neighbourhoods now, but also in different institutions as part of an attempt to make worker's salaries go further.

Input prices are out of our control

The issue of prices is important. And there is a process which is part of the international financial crisis that has to do with inflation and the devaluation of the dollar. As a result of the devaluation of the dollar, and the fact that we use a lot of imported materia prima, the production costs for producers go up. It would be different if we produced everything here in Nicaragua.

And another factor is that the same materia prima we import is subsidized for producers in other countries. Indirectly producers in impoverished countries pay for that subsidy because the price we pay is elevated [to cover the cost of the subsidy in rich nations].

Then there are the fuel prices which are very high. The international price of a barrel of oil nearly hit US$80 again last week. The price of fertilizer is also high. And even though we have the Fertilizer for the People Program, thanks to ALBA, the prices of other inputs are still very high.

Let's take a look at what happened in 2007. I remember that farmers were selling a hundred weight of beans at C$400, which is equivalent to C$4 a pound. But, at the end of 2007, consumers were paying between C$18 and C$27 for a pound of beans.

That's a significant different in price - and all that profit goes to the middleman who doesn't have have any production costs except for the cost of the transaction and perhaps the cost of the capital that he invested. But the middleman has no production costs nor does his work involve risks.

Because if there is a drought and the farmer doesn't produce anything, then the middleman doesn't buy anything. The only risk is not investing and not making any money. Meanwhile if the farmer sows and it stops raining then he loses what he invested. 

So that year, in 2007, the government's reaction to the situation I described earlier [regarding the price of beans], which for the Nicaraguan people was an unsustainable situation, was to set up the first ENABAS supervised points of sale. And as a result of that government action within two weeks the price of a pound of beans was reduced from C$23 to C12.

We believe that with the installation of more ENABAS points of sale, the involvement of more farmers organized in different associations, and the support of a government that facilitates channels for purchase, storage and sale, this expression of fair trade between Nicaraguan producers and Nicaragua consumers will become stronger and the prices of basic products will stabilize further. This process is taking place as a result of the development of direct relations between farmers and state institutions in each department of the country. 

So, yes we are putting into practise a plan that will help to solve the problems surrounding basic food prices.