Agros Blog

Here at Agros, we believe that ending poverty is about restoring relationships. And anyone who cares about real relationships knows that it is not always easy, or efficient.

In North America we are constantly looking for ways to make life and business more efficient. Efficiency is part of what it is to be entrepreneurial; finding ways to do something better, faster, all the while cutting down on expenses. In today’s world, this often means eliminating personnel through technological advances such as online purchases, self check-out stands at stores, Automatic Teller Machines, etc.

Even in real estate technology, our penchant for efficiency has almost eliminated the need for real estate agents. In today’s world if you want information about the house, you don’t even have to pick up the flyer under the sign. You can go to a website and find out all you want to know about that house and more, with photos at every angle. You can virtually go through the entire selection process without even meeting the seller or dealing with an agent face-to-face. All in all, it can be a pretty depersonalized process. And yet it is efficient.

At Agros, we also believe that efficiency is important, but not in a way that sacrifices relationship. Dealing with the core, root issues of poverty, we are committed to the transformation of real lives over the long haul. Our commitment is to entire villages over the course of many years, and so relationship is integral to everything we do and to who we are.

When we talk about buying a piece of land for a new village, it is the culmination of a very complex and lengthy process that involves lots of people and lots of relationships, and at every step of the way Agros emphasizes the relationships involved - from the farmers and their families who will eventually own the land, to the relationship with the seller. It may take a year or more to form and get to know a group before Agros even begins to look for land. We don’t hire a real estate agent to look through the Multiple Listings for large farms. The people in the group look for the land. Can you imagine trying to buy a house with 30 other families involved in the process? That’s what is involved in an Agros purchase of land.

Once the land is identified, then the study and negotiations begin. Again, this is not a simple process. It involves lengthy studies at various legal offices; there are no title offices that have everything on file to make sure there is only one owner, no liens, etc. These negotiations are a very personal process for all involved. During conversations for a recent farm in Nicaragua, the owner invited all 20 people who were visiting to have a meal.

So, why does Agros go to such lengths to actually buy a piece of land - why spend so much energy focused on relationships over the course of so many years? We’ve learned that those who suffer from extreme poverty have lost their most basic connections; connections to land, to community, to one another. Poverty can never be reduced to mere economic measurements. And while we believe that providing economic opportunity is essential, we have learned that alleviating the root causes of poverty is about restoring these broken relationships in all their forms.

This is why Agros cares about relationships. They are integral to everything we do. It’s a simple idea, but a complex task. And while it may not always be efficient, perhaps a better question to ask is - is it effective? To hear villagers answer for themselves, watch this clip from our newest video:

Agros Helped To Remove All Our Misery

So while all of this is going on in the field, in my next blog post I’ll talk about how Agros goes about a similar process here in North America to develop relationships with potential partners….stay tuned!