Cash Crop Possibilities in Nicaragua

Nicaragua's hilly farmlands

By Volunteer Rip Winkel

In
October of 2015, I was privileged to have traveled to Nicaragua in Central
America to work on a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment, supported by the U.S.
Agency for International Development through the organization Partners of the Americas.
The assignment was to assess the viability for small-scale cash crop production
in four farming communities in the municipality of Nueva Guinea.  My principle responsibilities were to meet
with representatives from each community, extract one or more soil samples from
each, and analyze each sample for pH, and N, P, K availability. After the
analyses was completed, I was to recommend avenues that could be taken to amend
the soil as well as possible crops that would perform well in the given
soil/climatic conditions.

The day after arriving in Managua, I was met by
Moises Guillén, the F2F field officer that assisted me for the duration of my stay. Moises
was the best of gentlemen; extremely helpful in transporting me around the
country side, stepping in when my Spanish failed, and holding me to the two
week schedule. The trip to the town of Nueva Guinea was approx. 280 km
southeast of Managua in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua, and took
about 4 hours. The two lane road was sinuous almost the entire way, but in good
condition with many incredibly beautiful vistas over-looking the Nicaraguan countryside.

Testing soil samples 

We arrived in Nueva Guinea around noon, and of course, it was raining. Moises
and I checked-in to the hotel and ate a quick lunch as we had a meeting with Jamileth
Méndez, the
president of UNAG (Unión
Nacional de Agrícola y Ganadería) that afternoon. For the most part, the next two weeks were spent in
that region, where Moises, Ms. Méndez and I worked on two main
objectives of the assignment. The first was to review current cultivars being
grown, discuss crop pests/diseases, soil issues with the farmers, and extract
soil samples representative of each community.

The second objective was to conduct an
informative presentation to each of the communities with applicable
recommendations. When the results of the pH, N, P, and K (and soil texture
analysis of each) were completed, presentations were given to each community and
to a group at the UNAG office. The presentations discussed various topics such
as soil origin/ composition (general and specific), soil maintenance,
importance of organic material in soil, facts on crop production (with fact-sheet
handouts). The presentations also reviewed the results from the each
community’s soil samples. Recommendations were then discussed over the
mitigation of soil acidity, soil erosion prevention, increasing micro biotic
activity via organic material, and crop options that would be best suited to
the existing soil conditions, etc.  

Winkel gives recommendations to potential farmers

The last
part of this objective was to initiate some test-plots, where treatments were
applied to four quadrants of soil. Commonly planted crops were planted in the
treatments. There were three of these test-plots in total, located in areas
with easy access, and open for all four of the communities. The intent for initiating
these experimental plots were to be a source of information/education for the
farmers; to test new cultivars, to try various soil amendments, resolve disease
problems, etc. in a hands-on

Over
all, the two week trip went very fast...too fast. I wish I could have stayed
there quite a bit longer for the amount of work that could be done. 

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