Survey Confirms Dramatic Success for Fintrac Clients in El Salvador

Manuel de Jesus Andrade, a farmer from La Libertad, El Salvador has used Fintrac production techniques under the USAID-IDEA program to increase his net income from $1,900 to $28,500.

Andrade credits Fintrac's technical assistance in crop diversification, drip irrigation and calendarization for his dramatic success.

"Before we worked our farms according to our imaginations. Now we work with the security of knowing we will see results. The practices we learned from IDEA lead to higher quality products and profits," Mr. Andrade said.

Andrade's success is one of many for Fintrac's   IDEA program in El Salvador, as found in a survey of the program's graduates.

Cipriano Antonio Contreras, a farmer in Ahuachapán, increased his farm income from $2,300 to $20,000.

"I thank God for IDEA. It has opened my eyes to new possibilities and opportunities to improve not only the life of my family, but of other members in the community," Mr. Contreras said.

Dora Alicia Rodriguez, another farmer in Ahuachapán, increased her annual income by 550 percent to $38,000.

"I will take what I have learned with me and incorporate these practices no matter where I am or which horticulture products I am growing," Ms. Rodriquez said.

Miguel Angel Rivera grew green peppers and cucumbers before, but after receiving Fintrac assistance his income increased from $8,750 to $31,000.

IDEA Project Administrator Christine Baumann went to El Salvador in September to conduct the survey with in-field program technicians Jaime Torres, Victor Santos, Rafael Vasquez and Francisco Navarrete. The team randomly surveyed program "graduates," small-scale farmers who had completed 18 months of intensive IDEA assistance and had been on their own for at least six months. These farmers had also received a technology co-investment to establish a drip irrigation system on part of their farm.

"The magnitude of success on this particular project actually surprised me," Baumann said.

The goals set forth by the Fintrac-implemented, USAID-funded Center for Agribusiness Investment, Development and Exports (IDEA) project are to increase non-traditional horticulture production, employment and incomes for small farmers. Since 2002, IDEA assistance has resulted in increased sales for farmers and agribusinesses by more than $19 million and the creation of 2,725 new permanent and 4,016 new temporary jobs. The project is scheduled to end in June 2006.

The farmers surveyed have hired 338 new full-time and part-time employees. These clients have also helped their local economies by re-investing $343,000 in new equipment, input supplies, and other products -- much of this on equipment such as tractors, pumps, drip irrigation, plows and protective netting. In addition they have invested in their households, including 12 percent of their net income on improved housing and 7 percent on their children's school fees. Another $43,000 was invested in new business ventures in transport and retail shops.

The farmers surveyed were in the La Libertad, La Paz, San Miguel, Usulutan and San Vicente regions of El Salvador. The graduates incorporated Fintrac's integrated farm management practices on their farms. For example, before the IDEA program, none of the farmers were using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices such as careful pest monitoring and the use of natural predators, biological controls, judicious use of pesticides, and crop rotation. Now 97 percent of those surveyed are using IPM techniques. Practices like these have reduced costs for pesticides and contributed to average income increases from $1,966 to $16,747, or 750 percent.

IDEA Production Supervisor Francisco Navarrete has seen the progress in El Salvador first-hand. "Fintrac IDEA has been the only project to implement a very unique methodology - technical assistance from land and nursery preparation through to markets."