I had the opportunity of witnessing a very significant event in the history of Cahabon, Guatemala. On Jan 27, 2021, all the chiefs that represented the 202 villages, that are associated with the town of Cahabon, met to create an alliance with the city and their neighboring villages. This was not an easy meeting, and it took a lot of leadership, and saying the right things, to sway these strong-minded chiefs to join the alliance. However, it turned out that there were a number of these chiefs that could not be swayed away from the alliance. The leaders of Cahabon were expecting a few dissenters, and were actually very happy with the number of chiefs that agreed to the new way of governing the area. They were quite sure that, in time, the other village leaders would have a change of heart.
These men came from a strong traditional background that is grounded in superstition and ancient ways of doing things -- so it will probably take some new blood to overcome some of their long-standing beliefs. One of their beliefs is that burning of the crop residues is necessary in order to cleanse the soil. In one sense they are right. However, it not only eliminates all the crop residues, which leaves them a clean seedbed, but it also cleanses all the beneficial features that are associated with building up the soil.
This map of Guatemala gives the general idea of where the villages are located -- that are associated with Cahabon. (The city of Cahabon is in the red rectangle area.) Evidently, it will take up to four hours to drive to some of these villages. This is primarily due to slow rough roads.
Some of the services that were discussed in the meeting were improved roads, infrastructure, postal services, the care for those in extreme poverty, establishing food reserves for bad weather years, cooperative marketing, the use of new agricultural technology, etc. There appears to be a real opportunity for our initiatives to sustainably improve their farming income.
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