WASHINGTON, D.C.—On the eve of a major meeting of the World Bank-sponsored
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Washington, D.C., to address food, poverty, and the
environment, a Colombian farmer will explain to US agricultural scientists how
environmentally safe methods have offered him an exit from poverty and an alternative to
narcotics production. Pedro Herrera will be available for interviews in Washington on
October 22 and 23 under the auspices of the Colombia-based International Center for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). On October 21, he will be in Baltimore addressing a workshop
organized by the World Bank as
part of the annual meetings of the U.S.'s three premier agricultural research societies:
the American Society of Agronomy,
the Crop Science Society of America,
and the Soil Science Society of America.
Almost 185 million Latin Americans—or 40 percent of the total population—live
in poverty, as defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In
Colombia, poverty has worsened in recent years as a result of its sinking economy and
violent guerilla war. On October 27 or 28, President Clinton will meet with Colombian
president Andrés Pastrana to discuss a wide range of issues, including the environment.
From 600,000 to 900,000 hectares of land are deforested annually in Colombia.
Poor farmers are hardly to blame for the destruction, said José Ignacio Sanz, leader
of CIAT's project on community management of natural resources in hillside watersheds. But
often, for lack of economic alternatives, they use farming practices, such as slash and
burn cultivation, that place tremendous pressure on hillsides and rainforests. For the
same reason, some of these farmers—a small minority—have little choice but to
grow coca and poppies.
Colombian farmer Pedro Herrera has struggled with these temptations: I got an
offer—and so did my brothers—to grow poppies. As head of the family, I called a
meeting. And we decided that this was not good for the family, that it would only do harm
to other people.
I’m concerned about my community,continued Herrera. I don’t want to see
families here suffer. That’s why some of them join the guerillas. I want our young
people to have alternatives to growing poppies and coca. I want them to see that you can
make a good living from farming, that you don’t have to go to the cities.
Migration to cities has continued at a rampant pace across Latin America in recent
years, and unemployment is high, at 14 percent in Colombia alone.
Herrera has worked his 17-hectare hillside farm for ten years in Colombia's Cauca
department, a region buffeted by poverty, social conflict, the narcotics trade, and
environmental degradation. But Herrera’s farming methods have improved his land,
halting soil erosion and protecting water supplies, while providing a decent living for 11
family members, even though he has set aside 6 hectares to preserve native biodiversity.
Herrera grows bean varieties developed by farmers themselves, using CIAT methods, and
he has adopted practices such as live barriers (rows of sugarcane and various grass
species) and in situ mulch to protect soil on steep slopes. In addition, Herrera and many
of his neighbors take part in a CIAT-promoted watershed management association that
coordinates community efforts to combat poverty and protect the environment.
To earn extra cash, they grow blackberries and another fruit crop called lulo, for
local markets. Pedro and other farmers formed a Committee for Local Agricultural Research
(or CIAL) to experiment with better methods of growing these cash crops. By helping small
farmers like Pedro set up agroenterprises, we enable them to climb out of poverty, so they
can afford the luxury of environmental conservation, said Sanz.
"You can't protect nature if you don't know where your next meal is coming
from," said Herrera. "It's painful to watch your children go hungry."
"To help save the environment in tropical America, we have to help people like
Pedro," said Sanz. "And to the extent we're successful, we'll also be creating
the social and economic conditions for peace in Colombia. The guerilla conflict and
narcotics trade are complex problems with multiple causes. But they won't go away unless
Colombians can eradicate hunger and find alternatives to rural poverty, thus sowing the
seeds of peace."
CIAT's research on hillside agriculture targets some 35 million rural people in nine
countries of Central and South America. It is supported by the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Canada's International Development Research Center (IDRC).
CIAT is a nonprofit, nongovernment research organization dedicated to alleviating
hunger and poverty and to protecting natural resources in the tropics. It is supported by
the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of nations and
international agencies that fund research for development.
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