Cristobal Arias Guzman

Union Majomut member, talks about being an organic farmer....

“In order to maintain a good quality of the coffee, it is very important to apply organic fertilizers, made of compost. At this level, we have a very good climate for the coffee: it is not too cold and not too warm and humid. That is exactly what you need to produce a good quality coffee.

But it also involves a lot of work: I need to make organic compost and I need to make terraces in the field, in order to avoid erosion. I need to diversify my plants and trees within the coffee plot. I need to clean the field at least twice a year by hand and maintain the coffee plants in good shape. I learned all this work from the promoters of the organisation. These are people that learn about organic production from the organisation and then teach us in the village. That is always really helpful for me, when the promoter comes to visit my land, because I learn from him."

As well as being good for the land, diversification provides additional crops for the farmers’ personal use, or as a means of additional income. As Cristobal points out,

“Diversification is also an important heritage of our ancestors. We don’t only produce coffee for exports, but we produce many more products for our own consumption and sometimes we sell on the local market. In my land, I have for instance mixed with coffee, bananas, oranges, lemon, avocados, peaches, pears, tree tomatoes and separately, because they need more sun, we have maize and beans. What I most sell on the local market are beans and maize and sometimes oranges. But I sell it cheap, because otherwise people don’t buy it. We are poor people; we have little money to spend. ”

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