ABOUT THE COMMUNITY:
The rural community of Guadalupe, is located in the District of Campo Redondo, Amazonas Region and has 270 homes and approximately 1,018 inhabitants. It has road access, light and public lighting services, educational services in initial, primary and secondary.
It is a community of small coffee and food producers who need to improve the productivity of their crops and pastures to improve the living conditions of themselves and their families. Climate change is seriously affecting coffee and food cultivation, rainfall is becoming scarcer and has been reduced to 04 months. With the support of St Jerome University and the Café Femenino Foundation, the diversification of crops is being promoted with the incorporation of cocoa at the level of small family pilots.
THE PROJECT PROPOSAL:
The technical proposal for the coffee harvest and use of water (construction of mini reservoirs or pilcas), represents an effort to promote the development of appropriate techniques that allow taking advantage of small volumes of water that are insufficient to irrigate small agricultural areas.
Water is an increasingly scarce resource that must be carefully managed. That is why it is currently estimated that more than 40% of the water destined for irrigation is lost (due to infiltrations, misuse, bad designs of pipes, etc.) before it reaches the crops.
This activity will be implemented in the Guadalupe Town Center (FORKUN), with the participation of five (5) families of the Guadalupe Town Center, all of them producers of organic coffee for export, are being benefited with the construction of a reservoir with geomembrane of 112.00 m3 of water storage and the installation of an 80.00 ml pipeline.
These beneficiary families are mainly dedicated to the production of organic coffee for export, bananas, bread to take for self-consumption and fruit trees such as pineapple, papaya.
The water for irrigation is used from a natural filtration of approximately 0.12 liters / second, traveling a distance of 80 meters to the reservoir. This situation is causing the greatest amount of water to be lost at the time of collection, conduction and storage.
In addition, the application of irrigation water is to mantle laid in favor of the slope, with this form of irrigation is eroding more and more the plots, resulting in constant losses of the arable layer.
PRE-ESTABLISHED PROJECT SUCCESS MEASUREMENTS:
* Solve the water/irrigation problems that most producers in the community experience.
* Increase revenues, via increased production and improvement of product quality.
* Determining the responsibilities of each of the producers.
* Coffee producers/community show interest and fulfill their commitments.
* Coffee producers/community participate in the implementation of the project
* Coffee producers/community are organized to maintain the work
PROJECT MEASUREMENTS:
* Meeting with the directors and partners of the association of producers of the community of Guadalupe, to determine the place where the reservoir will be built and the commitments for the excavation of the reservoir.
* Determine the number of beneficiary families.
* Willingness of producers to participate in the project from the beginning
* Hiring of a specialist for the technical direction of the construction of the catchment and the reservoir.
* Location of the land for the execution of the project
* Determination of the materials to be used in the construction of the reservoir.
IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENTS:
* Producers actively participated in the project.
* Project has the support of Engineer Cesar Obando in the design and technical direction of the construction of the catchment and the reservoir.
* The location of the land for the construction of the reservoir to be determined.
* The model and materials to be used defined.
* The contribution of the producers with the unskilled labor and the existing construction aggregates in the area was determined.
PROJECT MEASUREMENT RESULTS:
• Water collection has been built near the reservoir,
• The pipe has been designed and laid for the conduction of water from the catchment to the reservoir in a route of 100m
• A reservoir of 16mx16mx2m has been built and with a capacity of 112 m2
PROJECT BENEFICIARIES:
• 05 families in the community of Guadalupe
• 20 people from the community of Guadalupe
BENEFICIARY REACTIONS-COMMENTS:
• A lot of enthusiasm and willingness to participate in the construction of the reservoir.
• Much joy to see that the water reaches the reservoir and that it is possible to ration the use of water for irrigation.
• Security of increasing the production and quality of your coffee.
• Been able to diversify the coffee production with the installation of fruit trees, cereals, vegetables.
• Leadership in the community and neighboring communities, the construction of small reservoirs constitutes the most innovative and beneficial experience in the area.
IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY:
• Producers are requesting support to install this system in an associative way for families.
• Producers see that it is possible to better manage the scarce resource, water.
• Producers see that it is possible to conduct water in an associative way several hundred meters away.
• Growers are seeing that it is possible to manage at least 25 hectares of water using it to be deposited in the reservoir and using the sprinkler irrigation system.
UNEXPECTED BENEFITS OF PROJECT
The location of the reservoir in the Jonjoli sector, is distant from the populated center of the community and the access trail is inaccessible in the rainy season, so the materials had to be carried among several men. Thanks to the solidarity work of the partners, it was possible to accomplish the task of carrying materials to the project site.
PLANS TO EXPAND THE PROJECT
The construction of small reservoirs is the most effective way in the short term to help producers diversify their crops, improve quality and increase their incomes and thus improve their living conditions. It is necessary to support another three groups of user producers, in different sectors of the populated center of Guadeloupe.
In the year 2023 we will submit an application for funds to the Café Femenino Foundation
CONCLUSION:
The Project was a success because it is allowing producers to become aware of the importance of being associated to able to access support such as that given by Café Femenino Foundation and St Jerome University. It sensitize the coffee producers to climate change on our planet and begin the rationalizing the use of water. The project also taught them valuable leadership and project management skills such as to take into account the most suitable periods for the construction and installation work of the system would always be immediately after the rains because the ground will be softer for excavation.
TESTIMONIAL FROM MARCELIN ALTAMIRANO:
“Given the difficulties that farmers are going through, we are grateful for the help from the State, the Café Femenino Foundation and St. Jerome University. It leaves us a very important tool to improve our coffee production. The reservoir is now our greatest guarantee to produce more products, improve our income and educate our children”.
While most all communities use picks and shovels to prepare the site for the water reservoir the Municipality of Campo Redondo has provided this machine for the excavation of the reservoir. This support allows them to improve the amount of time needed for excavation greatly. This project may be complete by the second half of November, 2021.
