Adinch group
Nahualá , Sololá, Guatemala
The agricultural value chain between the “Association for the Integral Development of Producers of Chirijcalbal of the Municipality of Nahualá, Department of Sololá” (ADINCH, for its acronym in Spanish) and Unispice was founded in 2014. To date, this productive chain still works and, in this report, we would like to summarize their most outstanding achievements.
Productive capacity and economic growt
During 2014, work began alongside Unispice with planting programs for the first 3 hectares. The group was formally established as an Association in April of that same year. It started by bringing together less than 100 small producers, today ADINCH has 325 active members, with a soil productivity potential of up to 126 Hectares. According to the Socioeconomic Study done in 2021, the average area of land that each farmer is now planting with our products is five times greater than what the baseline reported.
During 2014, work began alongside Unispice with planting programs for the first 3 hectares. The group was formally established as an Association in April of that same year. It started by bringing together less than 100 small producers, today ADINCH has 325 active members, with a soil productivity potential of up to 126 Hectares. According to the Socioeconomic Study done in 2021, the average area of land that each farmer is now planting with our products is five times greater than what the baseline reported.
You can see this same growth in the indicator of the average annual economic income per producer: for the year 2012, the average daily income was below the national line of extreme poverty (according to INE’s parameters, 2011) and for 2021, income rose to 210% above the moderate poverty line (practically 4 times the EPL, see chart below), which is a clear indicator that the economic activity carried out has the capacity to get small producers out of poverty.
The yield per productive unit has been increasing each season, in an even greater proportion than the expansion of the area. Likewise, the amount of agricultural and soil conservation techniques have been implemented by more producers and in bigger production areas, which helps in more responsible and sustainable agricultural practices in terms of ecological issues and climate change.
Technical Assistance and certification of plots
Over the years, during the course of the intervention of the agricultural value chain, a group of growers has been training in the diversification and certification of high-value crops. To achieve this result, the group of growers receives continuous technical support from the Agronomist that Unispice has assigned to the area.
This direct technical assistance consists of monitoring activities
and control of crop management, continuous improvement in cultural practices, technification of agricultural activities and training on good agricultural practices and biosafety. The group of growers also receives the technical follow-up of the quality control of their crops and the necessary administrative support to carry out the activities to fulfill the contracts signed on the productive-commercial relations with the company.
PICTURES: 1. Field visit by Agronomist, 2. Cruz Ajtzalam Coj, President of ADINCH
and 3. harvest storage center.
Until a few years ago, ADINCH had managed to certify around 5 hectares under the international standards of Global G.A.P. Today, with the technical support and sponsorship of the Unispice Audit and Compliance Department, the group has certified 43 hectares with Global G.A.P. and the plan is to continue to cover more area each year. By complying with Good Agricultural Practices and the quality requirements demanded by Unispice, ADINCH has achieved greater reliability as a supplier of exportable raw material.
Positive and sustainable impact
ADINCH currently has 4 Collection Centers located along the access road to the different communities. In other words, in addition to the Association’s Headquarters and main collection center, the group has managed to build 3 more centers with its own funds to facilitate collection in a decentralized manner and closer to the plots of its members.
Pictures: Association Headquarters and Main Collection Center (left) and last Collection Center inaugurated in 2021 (right)
Conclusion
Therefore, we can conclude that the member growers have adopted the association model and have diversified their agricultural activity to make it profitable, being able to thrive economically as a group and as asociety by joining the agricultural chain with Unispice and their access to a high value global market.
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