Context and history
The seven countries of Central America (CA) are characterised by their small size, relatively high variability of development indicators, high income disparity, low degrees of decentralised decision-making and public administration, widespread poverty concentrated in rural areas with clear incidence of malnutrition among children and older people.
With regard to social and economic indicators relevant to poverty, the seven countries of CA can be broadly divided into two groups: Panama, Costa Rica and Belize clearly show more favourable indicators; Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala show high incidence of poverty. The average incidence of poverty in Central America is at 50%, of extreme poverty 23% with a marked difference between urban and rural areas. Extreme poverty is characterised by under- respectively malnutrition and absence of any productive resource. In the four countries with the highest poverty values around 15 to 20 % of the population are living below the required nutritional values, of these around 3 million children. The availability of nutrients per person has decreased considerably during the last 20 years and today ranges from 2900 calories/day/person for Panama and Costa Rica and 2300 calories/day/person for Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Although this average might seem unproblematic, it hides inequalities in distribution (Segundo Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano en Centroamérica y Panamá, 2003).
The people of Central America strongly depend on basic food crops for their food security, such as maize, beans and tubers. This dependency is particularly strong in low income households and in rural areas. Maize, beans and some tubers are thefore traditional food crops strongly embedded in the traditional farming system of Central America.
In order to enhance food security for the majority of the population, improvement of agricultural technology around these basic food crops is essential. Already in the 70’s, SDC recognised the need and the importance of these basic food crops for food security. As a result, co-operation and networks were started for the improvement of maize with CIMMYT, for beans with CIAT and for potatoes with CIP, including the NARS in up to 12 Central American countries.
During the last twenty years more than 100 higher yielding, disease resistant varieties of maize, around 30 of beans and equal numbers of potatoes adapted to agro-ecological conditions of Central America were developed, tested and disseminated. Parallel to the research on improved seeds, socio-economic studies were conducted in order to better understand the farming systems of the small and medium producers of Central America.
In spite of the good results of the co-operation in genetic research, new approaches to improve the severe socio-economic situation of the majority of the rural poor in of Central America are needed. It was also observed that a strong correlation exists between food insecurity, extreme poverty and degree of investments into agricultural research and extension. SDC explored possibilities of co-operation that would basically be characterised by (a) close co-operation with Central American actors of applied research and development (b) introduction of increased market orientation in the development of research and innovation (c) a strong integration in the Central American Integration System (SICA: Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana). The latter would facilitate political leverage for the advancement of technological innovation in Central America.
In order for the project to be relevant for poverty reduction, the project will follow principles such as:
- Focus on crops that are produced predominantly by poor hillside farmers and that are particularly important in the diet of low income consumers.
- The respective technology covers all steps in the chain from production to the market in regards to maize, beans and tubers.
- Expected research results are relevant to poor farmers. Strategic-applied research address long-term issues affecting poor farmers (e.g. effects of climate change – drought tolerance) Results form adaptive research allow a relatively rapid translation into practice in order to benefit producers.
- Supported projects will be financed on a cost-sharing base, hence creating financial leverage.
- Existing useful research results will be validated. Duplication is avoided by maintaining a system of knowledge management.
- The project will be part of the regional integration efforts of agricultural development (SICTA).
- The project will support national/regional efforts towards poverty reduction.
