ANF's Soil and water optimization lab

The families in Tipitapa's communities live in extreme poverty and depend on subsistence agriculture. Cultivation with low-cost traditional technologies limits the ability of families to produce enough to live on. Climate variability, such as droughts and high temperatures, have put additional pressure on farmers in the area. Enabling a lab that provides accurate analysis of their soil and water and crop needs will improve the ability to increase production and also provide a place for producers to "learn by doing" together, which will create a better safety net for these farmers. The ultimate goal will be to create an app that will allow us to better serve this community, but we think this concept is too foreign at the moment. If the project is a success, the app will be developed with real data, and could be an efficient, customizable, community-based tool for farmers in rural areas around the world.

Rural farmers represent the majority of the population in many developing countries. Ensuring adequate technology and knowledge is essential to secure food supply and promote sustainable use of natural resources (CGIAR, 1995). Unfortunately, in most of these countries, governments do not have the capacity to ensure adequate rural development leading to efficient systems. When rural farmers lack access to knowledge and information that would help them achieve maximum agricultural yields, they are driven to urban centers in search of formal employment as the best option for survival (Munyua, 2000). Many scholars have pointed out that the least costly input for improving agricultural development is adequate access to knowledge and early warning systems. The livelihoods of more than 80% of poor rural households in Nicaragua depend directly on small-scale agriculture (World Bank, 2014). There is a need to find well-informed long-term alternatives to help rural farmers break the cycle of poverty and reduce their vulnerability to the impact of climate change, as well as other external shocks

ANF wants to install the first community lab for local farmers in Tipitapa to help them make more informed decisions about their crops. The lab will be directly linked to the field school methodology that will allow farmers to practice and make sure they understand the best treatment for their land to increase productivity, yields, get an increase in their income and ultimately improve their quality of life.  

Farmers will be able to bring soil and water samples to do qualitative and quantitative analysis to help them better understand the specifics of their soil. The technology we have available at the moment is very basic (for example microscopes, digital PH-meter, stereoscope, thermometer). With this solution, our inventory will be complemented with better technology to be able to make better analysis and an adequate laboratory will be enabled for our impact.  In this way, producers will be able to gain practical experience and obtain accurate figures for nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium in their soil, for example. 

This soil and water laboratory will bridge the gap between the current soil characteristics and its potential (additive fertilizers) which will supplement the soil to increase fertility and organic production capacity. 

The ANF Soil and Water Optimization Laboratory will serve the local community to improve production conditions and knowledge.

Approximately 31.5% of Tipitapa's population lives in poverty and 41.6% in extreme poverty (CENAGRO, 2001). The communities surrounding the CEA and the ANF laboratory grow basic grains (i.e. corn, sorghum) and fruits and vegetables (e.g. melon, squash) for self-consumption. They have access to land and water but lack knowledge of the characteristics of their land and better farming techniques. Insufficient access to this information and other resources has kept them in a subsistence cycle with low yields and limited income.

The lab will have a direct impact on the lives of these small farmers and their families by providing them with the technology to understand the characteristics of their soil and help them identify what inputs (fertilizers, foliar sprays, etc.) they can apply to improve yields, earn more and have a better quality of life.

Our solution will serve the local community to improve production conditions and knowledge. These communities grow basic grains, fruits and vegetables for self-consumption. They have access to land and water but lack knowledge of the characteristics of their land and better farming techniques. Insufficient access to this information and other resources has kept them in a subsistence cycle. The lab will have an impact on their lives by providing them with the technology to understand the characteristics of their soil and help them identify what things (i.e. fertilizers) they can do to produce and earn more and have a better quality of life.

We are in the prototype phase because we conducted a preliminary experience in 2018 with a similar project with producers in the north of the country. The project worked and its success was based on the exchange of information between farmers. For the ANF Soil and Water Optimization Laboratory we are in the prototype phase and we need 50K to formally launch it and reach more than 100 producers and help them work better with the characteristics of an arid soil.

The solution is innovative because it will bring soil and water laboratory technology directly into the hands of the farmers in the community of Tipitapa. They will be able to know and understand the soil where they farm and thus make appropriate decisions when managing their crops. The solution is further innovated by linking the laboratory technology with the Farmer Field School, an experiential and group educational approach that facilitates farmer-to-farmer decision making, problem solving and learning new and more efficient techniques. Both the knowledge of soil and water components and the FFS format have been shown to have a major impact on the production, productivity and incomes of poor rural farmers around the world. This combination is innovative in that it equips producers with both scientific knowledge and practical experience to promote more efficient and sustainable productivity systems over the long term. In the first year, we will focus on creating physical space and a strong sense of community among the first 100 participating farmers. This will allow us to gather basic information and understand the real need for data and information from these farmers to create an accessible and appropriate phone application in which they can track their crops, understand their soil, communicate with our technicians as well as have information on weather patterns.

Currently CEA is supporting 468 producers in Tipitapa, but they are not doing soil or water testing. In our initial prototype in 2018 and 2019 soil tests were done, but not on a regular basis or every time a new crop cycle was ready. We expect that this solution can reach 100 producers each year directly, and more than 500 indirectly.

Our monitoring and evaluation plan will use a baseline, mid-term and final evaluation to monitor the objectives set out above.

The baseline report will include details on participants' poverty levels, income and production expenditures, monthly production indicators, fertilizer use, and agricultural practices normally implemented. Participants' poverty levels will be measured using the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI). The final survey will be conducted 6 months after the first year of the project to determine how beneficiaries' living conditions have improved, with emphasis on productivity levels and net monthly income. We will also measure the impact of this project by tracking the numbers of participating indirect families in the project. This will show the success of the solution within the community and the growth of our impact.

In total, the CEA team and the people in charge of carrying out this solution are 8 people.

ANF has been executing projects in Tipitapa for 5 years. Before that, we rented the facilities to ICDF (Mision Tecnica de China Taiwan) for five years starting in 2007. This puts us in a very good position because we have the confidence of the farmers in the community. We are a well-known entity there, to the point that the local agricultural university uses our facilities for the training of their students and sends interns to work and apply the theoretical knowledge they learned with their studies at our center. The professionl staff at CEA have between 5-8 years of experience in rural development and agriculture each. The lead agronomist also has a specialty in soil health from the local Agrarian University, as well as several years in high-value horticulture production, beekeeping initiatives and pig rearing.

All projects developed by ANF are based on a self-diagnosis with the community and key partners. This allows those involved in the creation of projects to actively participate in decision making. For the creation of the ANF Water and Soil Optimization Laboratory leadership team, the same process will be used to ensure that decision making is done by a group of people who represent the benefited community. Given that the project will have a community focus, we will ensure that all members and beneficiaries contribute their ideas throughout the project to ensure that it serves the community as well as possible.