Agros Blog

It is an exciting time here at Agros — our Board of Directors just approved two new village projects! It is incredible to think of the opportunities that are now unfolding for these families!

Village #32 is “La Providencia” in the Barillas region of Guatemala.
This will be a village of 100 Kanjobal (a Mayan indigenous group) families that will be moving onto a 552 acre piece of land we will be purchasing in the next couple of weeks. The land already has coffee, cardamom and sugarcane crops on it, so the families will have the benefit of these already established sources of income. They will also begin working on building their homes and other infrastructure, and then other economic activities like growing tomatoes and sweet peppers and raising chickens to sell. These families come from the neighboring areas of this land we will buy, many of them living on land that isn’t theirs and forced to work for other farmers for a low daily wage. The adults have little education, but a great desire to work hard to provide opportunities for their children that they never had.

Village #33 is “Nueva Palestina” in Chiapas, Mexico.
This group of 39 Tsotsil (another Mayan indigenous group) families already lives on an ejido, which is land given to them by the Mexican government to live on through land reform years ago. Since the land isn’t the best quality though, and they lack sufficient water to farm it successfully, they are forced to go work on neighboring farms or even farther away to get a low daily wage. Agros Mexico will be focusing on helping them get water for irrigation to parts of their land, improve soil quality, and then begin production on their own land with black beans and sweet peppers among other crops. They will also be providing training for the families on their handicraft and embroidery projects they already do to improve quality and find access to sustainable markets.