The Community Initiated Agriculture and Resource Management Rural Development Project or CARD was launched in 1999. Back then the aim of the project was to help impoverished communities through assistance to small farmers in poultry, rice production, and cattle rearing. But since that time there's no real measure of whether the programs are making any impact. Now two and a half years later, program managers are redirecting their efforts. Alfonso noble took a tour of the card project in the Toledo and Stann Creek Districts to see what's di fferent this time around.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
"Three and a half years later and $7 million spent, CARD is now shifting it's focus to industries such as this- the cacao which has vast potential especially here in the Toledo District.
Jose Novelo- Director, CARD
"There is a shift in focus where we are not necessarily now giving little grants all over the place. What we are saying let us take those organizations, be them productive organizations, be them service organizations even communities lets take them. Let us see what they are doing and let us see what we can do there to improve what they are currently doing and at the same time linking them with bigger groups that are in marketing."
Hon. Servulo Baeza, Minister of Agriculture
"Ïnstead of looking at 10 thousand, 20 thousand dollar projects we are looking at 100 thousand, 200 thousand dollar projects, much bigger projects."
Justino Pech, Chairman - Toledo Cacao Growers Association,
"CARD is also helpful in mobilizing us when we took over the responsibility of running the business of the association. We first set up sit down at our first meeting and set up a plan and this plan is to promote, conducting village meetings and we set up a calendar of activities. And secondly it is to lobby for some funding to promote farm activity."
"Farmers are now confident and because of their confidence now they are getting more involved into planting cacao because they foresee that it is one of the product that can generate income to sustain their family and livelihood."
Alfonso Noble,
That has now seen the establishment of this nursery in San Jose Village in Toledo where seedlings have been planted for villagers who've demanded the cacao trees. And with a potential market of some 200 tons or more of cacao beans this first step is bound to place the growers in a better position to export more of the product. But the assistance is not only limited to cacao production card is also looking at reanimating the honey industry. In San Felipe Village apiaries have already been set up to re-energize the dormant industry.
Jose Novelo,
"What we have done here is to provide them with equipment as well as the bee hives and training on how to manage Africanized bees, because what we have now in Belize are Africanized bees."
Pablo Cal, Toledo Bee keepers Association
"These people are trained to use other beekeeping products to other uses and products which can bring them incentives for them to develop themselves."
"We need the technical people to be behind these people to show them, to teach them so they can do it for themselves in the near future."
Alfonso Noble,
This will provide the industry much needed assistance to see it return to a standing that it once held a couple decades ago. From San Felipe the tour continued on to Barranco where the women's group of the village have set up a cassava-processing factory. It includes a grinding mill, a strainer and a baking oven. With the assistance of card: the old way of having to manually grate the tuber, strain and then bake has been done away with. The mechanical way of the processing the cassava has minimized work and increased productivity. What's more the entire process is community oriented benefiting all.
Eva Cayetano-Middleton, CARD Gender Specialist,
"The women have been able to run this project and it finances itself by charging a user fee and also they cooperate to clean and to maintain and buy whatever they need to keep their business going."
Jose Novelo,
"The idea here is to give alternative options to the people of what they can do. So what we are saying is that if we do honey, if we do cacao, if we do cassava, multiplier effects can come out of this where eventually the very poor person that probably had very little to do can now do casava can probably now grow some bees can grow some cacao and is so doing can they can upgrade their standard of living."
"The real aim of the CARD project is to alleviate poverty."
Alfonso Noble,
Poverty alleviation that is appropriately being directed to the Stann Creek and Toledo districts but it is yet to be seen if those millions of dollars being invested will have an impact on that part of the population that is poor. Reporting for 7NEWS from our last leg of the tour in Sittee River, Alfonso Noble.
The CARD project is a 14 million dollar project that will run for 5 years in both the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts.