Alticultura Greenhouse Project

Rachael Marie Shenyo is the Founder and nominated Director of international NGO Alticultura, operating in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, dedicated to innovation of cutting edge climate change adaptation strategies for the developing world. She is currently completing her M.S. in Agriculture and Resource Economics thesis from the University of Connecticut. Prior to Alticultura, she was involved in development work as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and later a Regional Coordinator with USAID. As a climate change adaptation economist and integrated development leader, she helps individuals, families, organizations and communities understand social, economic and ecological climate change impacts well enough to develop sound action plans that develop resilience by bridging the gaps between applying science, developing innovation, valuing tradition, and testing solutions. Her focus in project design and management is on tangible, measurable impact that elevates and empowers people to enact their own visions and change their own lives.

We believe sustainable agricultural production and food security can be addressed and achieved in a way that is value-based, maintains environmental integrity, and minimizes resource exploitation by recruiting small-scale, local farmers, low-income households consisting of indigenous women and men as resilient leaders utilizing adaptive capacity and the Walipini greenhouse model to produce a variety of products for individual family consumption and communal rural and urban marketability for generations to come in high-altitude regions. We believe in empowering and elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind, marginalized, and disproportionately impacted by global climate change such as indigenous women.

Insuring food security and adequate nutrition now and for generations to come in high-altitude regions like the Western Highlands of Guatemala. This is an urgent matter especially given climate variability highly impacting agriculture and causing high levels of crop loss. Typical users are those with small pieces of degraded land to work with. Corn and beans are staple Guatemalan foods, but there is currently between 25-30% crop loss due to climate factors like agricultural drought, wind damage, hail damage, no maturation, temperature, humidity levels. Our data shows black beans in our Walipini underground greenhouses take 2.5 months to yield compared to 7 months from the old system riddled with climate variability exacerbated by climate change. We are located in the rural highlands of Western Guatemala, but our work is relevant to much of Latin America, the Caribbean, and other high-altitude locations throughout the world and can be scaled globally in such regions. Adapting this greenhouse practice also solves problems in the realm of gender equality. Elevating opportunities for women due to the substantial decrease in labor and location built close to home. It has yielded stunning results and a project perfect for micro-credit investment and women business owners.

The project is a human-centered development and grassroots approach to sustainability. A Walipini, translating to “place of warmth” in Bolivian Aymara indigenous language,” consists of a 2-3m underground greenhouse and above-ground roofing that creates more energy-efficiency for year-round growing using the stable temperatures of the soil underground and a combination of passive solar and geothermal technologies. It works on the principle of using nature’s resources, i.e. the earth, to significantly increase the variety of crop production, with little or no energy inputs. We have seen products grow three-times faster than in open, traditional greenhouse systems with 10-25% water usage, and excellent humidity retention. Soil restoration using a carbon system with 90% limited pesticide use is also a major component of each successful prototype. Improvements in yield, growing time, extended seasons by five months, improved nutrition and taste and market quality. There’s a noted 300% increase in food and ROI of ~6-9 months production and quality. We estimate a 200-500% increase in yield/square meter. We’ve experimented with over thirty varieties of plants successfully; this model could easily accommodate thousands of species for ecological restoration projects, recovery of regional biodiversity, diversification of cultivation, growing of high-nutrition or high economic value crops, etc.

The greenhouse project is a community-based adaptation that positively impacts individuals, families, and small local community groups largely in the Western Highland departments of Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, Huehuetenango, Totonicapan, Q’iche, and Solola. Our program creates genuine, life-affirming, lasting impact for our users and their families and institutions. This includes all the work we do with women and women’s groups.  We aim to elevate women leadership and deal with this in 3 major ways: climate and impact research, human and community vulnerability research, economic valuation. We create an atmosphere where women feel comfortable fully participating in what we do measuring impact using indices of voice/ inclusion/ participation by women; and by measuring added benefit to human well-being. We use an innovative change model that evaluates 5 core areas that combine elements of the 3 models of development (economic, millennium, and sustainable) with a carbon and climate change element. Two of our key target areas for measuring success directly benefit women: the measurement of participatory voice of women in their social context; and direct measure of indices of human physical, social, educational, emotional, developmental, and mental well-being. 

Women, children, elderly, and socially marginalized indigenous populations are disproportionately and directly affected by climate change and its impacts. Part of the reason is social; directly related to power structures and equality. The other part is physiological. Women are less likely to own land/property; receive investment in their ideas; and be actively encouraged to participate in decision-making about resource use on a large scale. They are also more likely to suffer malnutrition; be emotionally, psychologically, spiritually impacted by climate effects. They’re likely to do low/unpaid work, and not likely to have the social structures needed for self-actualization and elevation.

In 2012, Rachael learned about the greenhouse model in Bolivia after living in Guatemala for several years. She lived in a place with the world’s 6th highest malnutrition rate (~65%), 5th highest soil erosion/ degradation rate, top 10 places for climate impact, top 10 highest deforestation rate, top 10 worst places to be a woman, top 5 most violent crime outside of a war zone, top 5 highest inequality rates in the world; and worst indices in the entire Americas for educational, scientific, literary, and employment indices for professionals. In her 17 years of studying these influences, she’s most certain that these things are all interrelated. The population in the highlands is mostly indigenous, and people’s livelihoods are almost exclusively agrarian. In 2014, a group of agronomist scientists, working on an initiative called Climate, Nature, and Communities of Guatemala, produced a report. The Highlands, they wrote, “was the most vulnerable area in the country to climate change” (The New Yorker). By 2017, she had funding to build the initial Walipini greenhouse inviting over two-hundred people to tour, including local individuals, families, Vice Minister of Agriculture, director of Guatemalan government agencies, representatives from universities, students, and health agencies for community input.

The beauty of our model is in it’s flexibility with the greenhouse beneficiary directing needs. Alticultura team helps to develop and amplify in a sustainable way by connecting them to local markets. There’s a strong cultural element of indigenous pride, this project enables growing traditional plants and restoring native biodiversity. Our greenhouse allowed for the rescue of three types of plants including a traditional herb. A young man is working on building a greenhouse in an indigenous community, working with a community youth group. There’s a personal connection to the Guatemalan Western Highland community and team. Our Board President is a Mayan man. The rest of our board are all indigenous women of varying ages, backgrounds, and talents. Our programs reflect a high level of inclusion and diversity, and benefit women members in three ways: members benefit from intensive training in projects, management, impact, leadership, science, economics, and integrated development, which can be applied to Alticultura work and in every area of their life; members can move from Board to Project leaders and directly benefit from the design of their own small social enterprise with our support; we encourage our people to propose their own ideas for projects for investment.

Rachael has conducted years of applied field research in human vulnerability and climate modeling with data trends to inform planning along with a diverse, dedicated team. She has over 15 years of a working relationship with Indigenous and Ladino Highland cultures. We routinely collaborate with Ministries of Environment, Protected Areas, and Agriculture, three government branches at the local level, for disseminating our findings, evaluating impact of programs and laws, proposing project lines for women’s groups, and conducting public workshops on climate change and the need for an integral approach that, among other goals, has gender equity as a necessary component. Our project is now in the pilot expansion stage, with measurable and replicable results. We are linking with a national university for further scientific evaluation, and we are designing a partnership with the Ministry of Protected Areas for the recovery of native species. The goal of the linkage with the Savory Project is to meet the training needs for the region covering southern Mexico, to Panama, and for the Caribbean; more bilingual instruction for certification of Spanish-speaking users from other regions of the world. Our projects touched 6 problems for contexts adapted for Central America: dry corridors, highlands, family orchards, reforestation and watershed management, resilient coffee, and reduction of ecological damage on plantations. 

At the time of the call for US citizens to evacuate Guatemala due to COVID-19 and international borders closing in mid-March, Rachael made the decision to stay in place on her farm and continue the Alticultura greenhouse project. It has proved to be a difficult situation with both personal and project setbacks and hardship. She fought a hard battle and won, in order to keep our greenhouse up in March. Even with the public transportation ban and country-wide curfew, she went three days a week and worked hard to triple production in the greenhouse; she has tomatoes, chilis, sweet peppers, cucumbers, local greens, passionfruit, lychee, fig, avocado, roses, hydrangea, lemon, nutmeg, aloe, cactus, borage, squash, pumpkin, ginger, black beans, red beans, tomatillo, basil, thyme, and alfalfa in various stages of production. We are anticipating major 2020 food shortages and expect that our on-site production will be a huge local relief for over 30 types of products. Amidst this global pandemic, institutions have temporarily suspended funding for projects in Guatemala. She is unwilling to give up and is working tirelessly with 5-7 additional jobs at a time to keep the project going.

Rachael is a leader in uplifting the hearts and minds of others as a social and human rights focused artist and award-winning international poet. She uses her talents to explore and elevate the human side of the climate work we do. Much of her poetry directly involves the female experience in Latin America and amplifying the woman’s voice internationally. She’s participated with the following three local poetry clubs of Quetzaltenango, representing Alticultura and herself as an inspiring professional woman: Grito de la Mujer: “The Scream of the Woman;” she has participated as a guest three years in a row with poetry related to women’s disempowerment; Casa los Altos: Rachael participates as a leading member of this group with city-wide events, radio programs, workshops, and book signings. In 2019, Rachael was invited to share her poetry on migration, ecology, and the woman’s voice in two events: first, a radio program in Xela; and a week later, an international poetry collaboration in México. She was invited to lead a workshop session in Cacahoatan, México on the use of poetry as an empowerment tool for women; and to share her experiences in a panel on being a professional woman in a male-dominated field.

We use a very innovative model that puts economic value on soil carbon and vital services that women often provide for little or no financial reward, creating a case for basic income for women who can demonstrate that they are contributing to human and ecological health and wellbeing. The people who receive our training have shown a level of critical thinking in decision making, very little seen in Central America. We are designing Central America’s first certified regenerative agriculture center, using practices designed originally with women from rural Kenya. The practices reduce carbon emissions in agriculture and actually remove CO2 from the atmosphere; while restoring soils degraded by bad practices and climate pressure. This results in our underground greenhouses creating higher yields; more nutritious foods; higher quality food and better prices; diversification of employment; self-sustaining farms self-employment; ecologic benefits; restoration of surface and groundwater; and resolution of a host of other issues that directly impact women most. We have integrated five international practices adapted for restoring soils in the Altiplano: from Brazil, use of Biochar; from Japan, use of high heat, rapidly producing microbes; from North America, use of Green fertilizers and cover cropping. We are the only ones working here in this way, and the models are innovatively our own.

Our organization is shortlisted with Savory Institute to open the first experimental center and certification of regenerative agricultural practices, to cover the entire Central America. We’ve identified 7 applications for different contexts; we’d carry out 500,000 users within 10 years of operation; aim to achieve 7,000 within the first 3-5 years. We have agreements for the use of 5 spaces for pilot practice validation projects plus our extension programs. We have plans to link with others as we seek funding for 30 more underground greenhouses. To begin the formal certification process of our facilities, we need investment of $50,000 for 2 years of operation, and then it will be sustainable. Within 5 years, potential to replicate into the Central American remote corner of the Highlands department of Totonicapán, known as the dry corridor. The area begins in Panama and snakes north through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and parts of southern Mexico. Home to some ten million people, it is defined by its susceptibility to droughts, tropical storms, landslides, and flash floods; more than half of the residents in the region are subsistence farmers, and at least two million of them have gone hungry in the last decade because of extreme weather. As climate change has worsened, the dry corridor has extended into the western part of the country—scientists describe Totonicapán as the most vulnerable department in the Western Highlands—and efforts have been made to anticipate and mitigate further damage (The New Yorker).

Short-term, we would love to be able to do a double underground greenhouse for each family with the goal of half of production for home consumption and the other half for market sale. We ultimately aim for farm-to-table rural movement and expansion of the variety of foods so that there’s less need for importation. Within the next year, we are looking to expand our team working on the ground with Alticultura by at least five individuals if not more. We would love to build 50 greenhouses with each greenhouse feeding and empowering up to 5 families in the next year, but with COVID-19, we may need to scale back with building and begin with 5-10 running greenhouses in the area across the six departments Alticultura currently operates. Departments we work in and have partners include Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, Huehuetenango, Totonicapan, Q’iche, and Solola. We are interested in immediate building in these 6 departments as we have user groups on the ground in each of these departments who are ready to start construction. The highest priority is Quetzaltenango and bringing on 10-15 users in this department. Long-term impact goals fit into our larger practice of regenerative agriculture with economic, social, etc. benefits like higher market value, higher value product, etc.; trying to sell the greenhouse model as a global patent product that can address lots of different issues (nutrition, climate change, women’s empowerment) around the world; and continuing to drive sustainable food security internationally.

Financial barriers are currently limiting our ability to accomplish our immediate project goals and vision in expansion and scaling both locally and internationally. We are limited in obtaining the manpower and resources to further scale locally. There is a greater need than we can currently provide for. There is a running list of over 35 families and individuals that want and would benefit from an underground greenhouse now (3 in Waywaytanango, 5 in San Marcos, 25 in Quetzaltenango). As well as 10-12 ready and trained to build in Solola. There is a high initial investment in creating the underground greenhouse with the two greatest costs being excavation and lamina roofing. Lamina, which is tougher and highly durable compared to traditionally used Nylon, has a 15-25 year resilience. Traditional above-ground greenhouses are made from cheaper Nylon plastic, but it disintegrates by UV levels of 11+ within 1-3 years in elevated Highland regions. 

The main approach we are taking to secure financial security is applying for grants and institutional funding opportunities. We are aligning our vision and goals with a potential donor’s visions and goals to ensure meaningful partnerships. We continue to seek out volunteers with the hopes of offering current dedicated volunteers paid positions on our permanent team. Some barriers have been alleviated by volunteer and passionate members in the communities we serve. People understand the necessity of our work and desire a means to a sustainable livelihood. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been difficult for many volunteers to continue their work with us. Our volunteer Raquel W. continues to offer her help remotely from the U.S. after being evacuated. We plan for the high initial investment because we understand the high ROI. Once the underground greenhouse set-up is complete, it brings production potential to the full 12 months of the year with a 500% increase in harvest compared to the shortening 5 months production capabilities. We are also then able to achieve crucial goals of water harvesting, erosion control, and improvement of biodiversity with our model. It also substantially shrinks labor time to just 45 minutes a week. Time is often a major resource that women in developing countries don’t have access to and limits empowerment. We remind ourselves of why we are committed and continue to persevere through.

We are partnered with a variety of local organizations. A key partnership is with our Program Director Carmen Benitez and her organization, 32 Volcanes. It is a Quetzaltenango (Xela) based organization focusing on nutrition, health, and integral programming and leadership. Another key partnership is with CEDEPEM where we have a headquarters of pilot projects and ties to the European Union with Adolfo Lopez Sosa as the contact person. Asociación De Desarrollo Integral Kak Be is another local partnering NGO founded and run by one of Rachael’s university students, William Menchu, and has served as a site for greenhouse construction, climate diploma course, research related to land restoration, conservation and food security. We also partner with and work as councilors for three branches of the Guatemalan government (Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Protected Areas, Education), and offer training to more than 12 local organizations and through 2 universities. Another important partner in our project is the Savory Institute, which has shortlisted us to work with them on the certification of the international training center in its Hub program. Other Organizations we have ties/connections to include the British Embassy; UN FAO in San Marcos; ICTA Agricultural Research Station; ACORDI research site; Universities of San Carlos, del Valle, Rural, Galileo; USAID; NGOs in the capital; two Alticultura team members have pivotal community leadership roles in their mayor’s offices; SERES youth development organization; Alianza Francesa; Comunidad Artistica de Xela and Esquipulas; Barbara Ford Youth Development Organization; Women’s prison in Xela; The Nature Conservancy.

We plan to bring in money to fund our work and organization in five financially sustainable ways. First, by selling products of our own production from the greenhouses and by provisioning our training and technical services. Second, with the certification of user practices with regenerative measurable standards, with annual quota or percentage of sales to pay for the certification and record-keeping service, entry into improved markets, etc. Third, with the link with Savory International, which charges users for their training, and reinvests half of the amount to the certified “hub” institution to provide instruction and training for new practitioners. Fourth, the social enterprise structure allows self-investment, and we have a planned to invest in the innovative ideas of our employees consisting of women, men, youth, elderly, and indigenous populations and the ideas of others outside the institution consisting of the community. Fifth, through donors and sales by the other art, writing, translation, business evaluation, photography, graphic design, and other services businesses that are now supporting our efforts.

So far, this project has been financed exclusively by 4 means: 2 small scholarships (30%); Rachael’s efforts with her own sales and consulting salary (30%); to be covered by technical training services provided by Rachael (5%); and small donor donations (35%). We are waiting for news now about other financing that will give the team a salary and allow us to make this year's investments. Actual numbers and breakdown of organizations providing support available upon request.

If we can get institutional backing of $30,000 for the next two years, we will proudly be starting Central America’s first internationally certified hub and trilingual training center for sustainable regenerative practices for agriculture based on land health, ecological restoration, sustainable and climate resilient income, and atmospheric carbon emission reductions (measurable and provable). This is what our long-term vision and all program work is leading us to. A certified hub commits to a lifetime of results and a goal to reach, educate, train, empower, certify, and assist over 500,000 people. We are looking for $12,000 for wages (two people), $5,000 for investment in existing programs, and then $13,000 needed for formal enrollment in the Savory Program. For each $1,500 we raise in donations for these efforts, one family gets a greenhouse for their own consumption and family business. This initial investment of $1,500/greenhouse set up includes payment of team including excavation cost which takes 4 hours with a backhoe contracted for $30/hr. Our team provides 3-6 months of mentoring support for business models for families as well as 8-10 months of oversight and consulting at 1-2 hours every two weeks in consulting (flexible depending on each client).

We align our vision with the Elevate Prize Foundation to elevate humanity. Our project takes an approach of internal and external transformation for the human-being and their socioeconomic-ecological environment. We use an innovative model of integral development, based on meeting all Maslow’s needs; with emphasis on the generation of adaptive capacity as the transformative element to elevate the person from basic survival to the implementation of their own vision, dream, and self-realization in life. We teach people how to be their own champions. We believe that our strategy has the capacity to change the face of regional, national, and international agriculture. The Elevate Prize can help us amplify our work and reach internationally by allowing us to overcome financial barriers and building recognition. We have achieved high-quality results, with the efforts of our workers and board of directors, but we haven’t been able to pay a salary, make a large investment, or have any security. We are missing the seed capital investment to formalize what we have, publish, and elevate Alticultura as competitive for other financing available for projects and initiatives. We need the investment contribution to show our capacity as facilitators of change and leaders in our field. The prize would link us with a dynamic network and give us a formal entry as a recognized institution for excellence, with openness to grow and apply and measure and disseminate our programs.

Our work could greatly benefit and scale from the resources The Elevate Prize is providing. We seek funding support and a revenue model review. From mentorship and coaching, Rachael hopes to bring the vocabulary to better sell the idea of investment in innovation and research and interpersonal training, in the poor areas of Central America. Still, in most programs she's evaluated, users are treated as recipients and recipients; and she wants to train them as powerful resources of technical knowledge; critical thinking skills; high level of leadership; and empowered voice for transformational change in the region. Rachael believes that this prize would help us carry out this type of transformation, increasing the toolbox that we already have, and provide new training ideas and the dissemination of key concepts. Alticultura marketing, media, and exposure could be improved. We would like to create a professional presence to amplify our work.