Food security and gender equality

Strengthened capacities of small farmers and indigenous women in the dry corridor in northern Nicaragua so that they can develop agroecological agriculture adapted to climate change and thus achieve food security, as well as transform their relationships to make them more gender-equitable.

Directly involved are 210 women (who are members of ASOMUPRO) and 30 young men (with whom work is primarily carried out on the topic of new masculinity) from the three municipalities of Ciudad Antigua, San Fernando and Mosonte. Indirectly involved are 9,450 people.

The project area covers the 3 municipalities of Mosonte, San Fernando and Ciudad Antigua, all located in the department of Jinotega, on Nicaragua's northern border with Honduras. They are part of the arid corridor, which has always been characterised by lower annual rainfall, but where climate change is making itself felt even more problematically than in the rest of the country due to extreme weather, such as exceptionally long dry spells and unusually heavy rainfall. The area of the dry corridor is peripheral, rural, was previously characterised by small-scale agriculture and is inhabited by descendants of the indigenous Chorotegas language family. Logging and the large-scale cultivation of tobacco further exacerbate the environmental problems and, above all, mean that fewer and fewer people have access to clean drinking water. ASOMUPRO has already gained a great deal of experience in the application of agroecological methods and the cultivation of alternative crops (e.g. various fruit trees), which are better suited to adapt to the advancing effects of climate change.

The project's activities include diversifying the plots of land cultivated by the smallholders, including reforestation with shade-giving trees and the establishment of vegetable gardens in the immediate vicinity of their homes in order to improve the family's food supply. Systems for drip irrigation of the plots and house gardens, as well as clay filters for sterilising drinking water and economical kitchen stoves in the households, are intended to help use the available resources more economically. Advice on how to redesign existing agricultural land should help to minimise possible risks (e.g. as a result of heavy rainfall) and optimise the benefits. In addition, there is an awareness-raising campaign in the three municipalities to win over neighbours for climate change-adapted agriculture. The second part of the project involves a series of workshops on the topics of gender equality, personal development and (for the young men) new masculinity. In the first year of the project, a study is also planned to investigate what resources young women in the project area need (e.g. access to productive land) in order to gain more self-determination over their lives as smallholder farmers.