Supporting smallholder farmers to meet the challenges of climate change

Pakka Foundation is looking for donors to help financially support the small farmers of the ACAYMA cooperative in Colombia.

Climate change is hitting small farmers in Colombia particularly hard. Increasingly frequent droughts, floods and the resulting fungal infestation and diseases on their plants are making life increasingly difficult for them.

The Pakka Foundation supports the small farmers of the ACAYMA cooperative in Colombia with targeted interventions (locations are shown on the map below).

  • Alvarado (Tolima),
  • Apulo (Cundinamarca),
  • Cajamarca (Tolima),
  • Guamo (Tolima) und
  • Tocaima (Cundinamarca)

Pakka Foundation shows them that agroforestry organic farming is a viable alternative and an optimal approach to a sustainable and rewarding future with climate-smart varieties and organic fertilisers.

The Pakka Foundation has been working with the ACAYMA cooperative for a long time and already supports it actively and to the best of its ability.

The Acayma cooperative and its farmers cultivate 155 hectares of certified organic land. The cooperative consists of 13 members and 48 families are connected to it. The ACAYMA farmers are the producers of organically grown fruits and cocoa for the two Pakka sister companies Fruandes and Equiori in Colombia.

Many of them are not able to cope with the challenges of climate change and more and more farmers are tempted to quit (last year it was about 20%) and seek their fortune in other fields of activity. The Foundation wants to counteract this and show them solutions and model approaches so that the farmers can be accompanied even better and more intensively on their way with the climatic challenges and can be offered even more support.

Ways to help – with a donation of

CHF 1000 - Workshops for farmers

With CHF 1,000, we organise a complete training for the local farmers and show them how to manage their farms and cultivated areas sustainably and how they can continue to live well from the agricultural products in the future.

Such a workshop consists of the following elements and costs:

Item  Cost amount Total
Food CHF 5 30  CHF 135
Transport Trainer CHF 38 1  CHF 38
Transport farmer CHF 15 30  CHF 402
Material CHF 100 1  CHF 100
Rent CHF 325 1  CHF 325
Total CHF 1’000

CHF 10’000 - Construction of irrigation and retention

With CHF 10,000 you help a model farm to build a rainwater irrigation system including a catch basin.

Such a model system serves as a showcase for the farmers and shows them that such investments and expansions are worthwhile.

Such an irrigation system consists of the following elements and costs:

Item Costs
Retention pond CHF 2’000
Drip irrigation CHF 8’000
Total CHF 10’000

CHF 20’000 - Building of a biofabrica

With 20,000 CHF, the Acayma cooperative can build its own bio-fertiliser production plant, where the farmers can learn and have the opportunity to produce their own bio-fertilisers and sprays against the increasing fungal diseases.

Such a plant consists of the following elements and costs:

Biofabrica
Costs in CHF
Composting mixer CHF 7’142
Wood chipper CHF 4’857
Conveyor belt CHF 2’000
Tractor shovel CHF 1’143
Industrial mixer CHF 1’429
Ph meter, Thermoment, Stamp moisture meter CHF 571
Soil analyses CHF 1’429
Development of a standard protocol for each biopreparation of the Biofabrica CHF 1’429
Total CHF 20000

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Where are the cultivation areas of the small farmers?

Wer ist Pakka Foundation

Venturing into new projects requires partners who are willing to take risks and share them. When it comes to projects around sustainable value chains, the Pakka Foundation is the right partner. The Pakka Foundation’s aim is to promote approaches that involve everyone from producers to consumers and allow everyone to profit from these agricultural products. At the beginning, however, the framework conditions for successful agricultural production, processing and marketing must be clarified and established. This is the actual core competence of the Pakka Foundation and is based on and builds on the wealth of experience in the field of building nut value chains of the Pakka Group.

learn more

Kontakt

Katharine van der laan
Geschäftsführer / Executive Director
Tel. +41 44 454 22 84
E-Mail: vanderlaan@pakka.ch

Videoportrait Pakka Foundation

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