In San Juan del Río Coco, located in the Las Segovias region of northern Nicaragua, farmers have good reason to doubt the integrity of cooperative organizations. Since the electoral defeat of the Sandinista Revolution in 1989, farmers’ organizations have fought to provide access to better markets, improved productive practices, and models for democratic organization to traditionally marginalized coffee farmers in remote regions of Nicaragua’s highlands. Cooperative organization is not new to the region, but the role and focus of grower cooperatives have changed, and not for the better. Since the time of revolutionary leader Augusto Sandino in the 1930s, Las Segovias has been an area of campesino1 organizing (Macauley 1967).
During my fieldwork from 2001 to 2006, I experienced firsthand the gains and frustrations of agricultural development experienced by international development agents contracted through USAID to promote organic agricultural production in rural Nicaragua. CLUSA, the Cooperative League of the United States of America,2 penetrated remote and impoverished agrarian zones to teach organic agricultural practices to farmers who were willing to comply with its strict production, farm management, and quality standards.
All farmers make sacrifices and take huge risks in order to succeed in the coffee industry, and none more than small-scale farmers. These farmers live between bankruptcy and bonanza all year long. The facets of production that are outside the farmers’ reach, such as quality control, exportable percentages, drying, threshing, marketing, and shipping, leave farmers dependent on others whose actions they cannot control. As a result the outcomes often fall short—sometimes far short—of the farmers’ needs. This Study is an account of a remote community that struggles against a tradition of marginalization, subjugation, and deceit.
During seven years of collaboration and cooperation with small-scale coffee farmers of San Juan del Río Coco, I recognized the volatility of their economic situation. I wondered why these farmers continued to produce for an exploitative industry in support of a government that largely ignored their interests. In Las Segovias, there are no safeguards for small farmers or their families. Unforeseen illness, misfortune, or natural disasters are common causes for foreclosure. Many farmers from San Juan had sold their land to larger producers when times were tough. Many more have abandoned their parcels to seek better payment for manual labor in nearby El Salvador or Costa Rica. The risk incurred while traveling with so few resources and no insurance would be unthinkable by my North American standards.
Also, it is important to keep in mind that the Contra War between government forces and the revolutionary Sandinistas took place in this very region. I do not devote much space here to the dynamics of life and work in a former conflict zone, but the aftershocks of a war in this community had still not worn off, fifteen years after peace was settled. Impressively, among the farmers with whom I worked were both former Sandinistas, or compas, and Contra soldiers. Many of them had fought against each other in nearby arenas of battle. Because I too lost family and loved ones as a result of that war, I find it significant that these people can work to heal past wounds by supporting each other in generating productive activity, managing land, and conserving the local ecosystem.
Mr. Rows Namoura Coffee 
Coffee and the Countryside: Small Farmers and Sustainable Development in Las Segovias de Nicaragua
In San Juan del Río Coco, located in the Las Segovias region of northern Nicaragua, farmers have good reason to doubt the integrity of cooperative organizations. Since the electoral defeat of the Sandinista Revolution in 1989, farmers’ organizations have fought to provide access to better markets, improved productive practices, and models for democratic organization to traditionally marginalized coffee farmers in remote regions of Nicaragua’s highlands. Cooperative organization is not new to the region, but the role and focus of grower cooperatives have changed, and not for the better. Since the time of revolutionary leader Augusto Sandino in the 1930s, Las Segovias has been an area of campesino1 organizing (Macauley 1967).
During my fieldwork from 2001 to 2006, I experienced firsthand the gains and frustrations of agricultural development experienced by international development agents contracted through USAID to promote organic agricultural production in rural Nicaragua. CLUSA, the Cooperative League of the United States of America,2 penetrated remote and impoverished agrarian zones to teach organic agricultural practices to farmers who were willing to comply with its strict production, farm management, and quality standards.
All farmers make sacrifices and take huge risks in order to succeed in the coffee industry, and none more than small-scale farmers. These farmers live between bankruptcy and bonanza all year long. The facets of production that are outside the farmers’ reach, such as quality control, exportable percentages, drying, threshing, marketing, and shipping, leave farmers dependent on others whose actions they cannot control. As a result the outcomes often fall short—sometimes far short—of the farmers’ needs. This Study is an account of a remote community that struggles against a tradition of marginalization, subjugation, and deceit.
During seven years of collaboration and cooperation with small-scale coffee farmers of San Juan del Río Coco, I recognized the volatility of their economic situation. I wondered why these farmers continued to produce for an exploitative industry in support of a government that largely ignored their interests. In Las Segovias, there are no safeguards for small farmers or their families. Unforeseen illness, misfortune, or natural disasters are common causes for foreclosure. Many farmers from San Juan had sold their land to larger producers when times were tough. Many more have abandoned their parcels to seek better payment for manual labor in nearby El Salvador or Costa Rica. The risk incurred while traveling with so few resources and no insurance would be unthinkable by my North American standards.
Also, it is important to keep in mind that the Contra War between government forces and the revolutionary Sandinistas took place in this very region. I do not devote much space here to the dynamics of life and work in a former conflict zone, but the aftershocks of a war in this community had still not worn off, fifteen years after peace was settled. Impressively, among the farmers with whom I worked were both former Sandinistas, or compas, and Contra soldiers. Many of them had fought against each other in nearby arenas of battle. Because I too lost family and loved ones as a result of that war, I find it significant that these people can work to heal past wounds by supporting each other in generating productive activity, managing land, and conserving the local ecosystem.
Patrick Staib (2012) Coffee and the Countryside: Small Farmers and Sustainable Development in Las Segovias de Nicaragua
Share this: