Home Gardens for 200 Families, Oaxaca, Mexico

Dear GlobalGiving supporters,

The five families who were supported by GlobalGiving in 2019 established their local home gardens and produced cucumbers, coriander, chives, pumpkins, watermelon, and green beans.

These families were trained on how to trace and identify areas for the establishment of their home gardens. Our objective with this group was strengthening and anchoring capacities to develop holistic management of family gardens. We were able to achieve success by supplying families with basic food and organic products. We emphasized the use of simple but efficient practices without the use of pesticides or fertilizers, so families could continue learning and promote these practices to other families.

At this moment we are conducting meetings with the families who participated in the establishment of home gardens to start the 2020 planting process. Leveraging the experience from the previous cycle we will use the same planting beds for the next season and we will add an additional training to make organic fertilizers to enhance their home gardens. We are also going to incorporate a seed bank to lower the costs and secure the seeds for future production cycles.

In addition, we worked with the community to develop a comprehensive analysis of five non-timber forest products that grow in La Chinantla Baja (xate palm, coffee, vanilla, cacao, and Maya nut). The communities have been analyzing the information on each of these products in relation to production, market, minimum requirements to sell, costs and benefits of the product. The community has now organized and is interested in developing a business plan around vanilla production.

We are very proud of our results and we look forward to the next update--we couldn’t do it without you!

Thanks again for your support

Severiana Dominguez, Project Technician

Dear GlobalGiving supporters,

I write with an update about the home gardens we’ve helped establish in Chiltepec, Oaxaca with your support!  The production of vegetables obtained so far has been used by the families for their own consumption. Eventually, the surplus will be sold locally to generate additional economic income for the families.

In Chiltepec there has been a greater appreciation of the home garden, based on the ecological and social impact that the participating households--particularly women--have seen when they got additional food and fresh vegetables for their families.

At this moment the home gardens have vegetables such as pumpkins, chives, wild coriander, chili, cucumbers, radishes, and peppermint. So far cucumber production has been excellent and the communities are excited. Doña Norma was so grateful, she wanted to make me a cucumber salad! We expect the same results with the pumpkins and the wild coriander in the coming months.

All the home garden species were selected through a participatory process, with the families prioritizing the herbs and vegetables they wanted to grow. As a side note, we have also produced a few cedar and mahogany in the nursery tree for reforestation and forest restoration.

Thanks again for your support and we look forward to the next update--we couldn’t do it without you!

Severiana Dominguez, Field Technician, FARCO, Oaxaca