HOLIDAY SEASON WITH FOOD SECURITY

Ana María Aguilera and her family live in the rural community of Higuaje, Somoto. Located in the dry corridor of northern Nicaragua, Ana María and many other families in this community live in extreme poverty and depend on agricultural practices for their livelihood, which often results in experiencing temporary food insecurity.

Ana María lives with some of her grown-up children and their families as they have struggled to afford a place to live in. As part of their day-to-day Ana María´s older sons work with her husband growing corn and sorghum in a plot that is located 1 hour walk away from their home. While Ana María, her daughters, and daughters-in-laws stay home to do home chores such as feed the chickens, clean up the chicken coop, and water their garden.

Ana María´s family in occasions struggled to bring food to their table. Thanks to ANF´s Higuaje Food Security Project, Ana María was able to establish a bio-intensive garden, received a chicken coop, and a water harvesting system.

“My chickens used to sleep outdoors because I only had some stakes, not the wire mesh fence. That is why some of them used to disappear and only 5 remained before the construction of the chicken coop, but now I have 25 chickens, including a few egg-laying hens.”

Thanks to her new bio-intensive garden and chicken coop, Ana María has stopped purchasing eggs, bell pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, butternut squash, and onions. She now has learned through technical training how to successfully plant and grow these types of vegetables. With her new rainfall harvesting system it is easier for Ana María to water her garden twice a day. Before, she used to carry water buckets from a well located 200 meters from her home.

Ana María´s family improved their precarious food security through their bio-intensive farming, while having the opportunity to share with their neighbors some vegetables from their garden when they have overproduction.