Mrs. Margarita Gutierrez from the community of Ambuquí acquired a mower and a stationary pump to improve the management of her crops.
Fondos de Innovación
The Innovation Funds are a revolving credit mechanism that does not generate interest for the beneficiaries and that we use in our intervention as a tool to generate changes on the farms.
These funds are awarded once a year and are directly related to farm redesigns. That is, the investments that people make in their farms contribute to the changes they want to implement based on their future maps.
Mr. Antonio Anrango from the community of Manzano Guaranguí made the purchase of lemon plants for his farm.
Mrs. Gloria Quilumba from the Manzano Guaranguí community acquired animals as part of the changes she wants on her farm
The investments that are made range from tools, machinery, plants, fertilizers, animals, reservoirs, irrigation systems, among others. All these innovations that are implemented have specific objectives for each farm. In some cases they represent a change in the type of cultivation of the farms, in other cases it represents an improvement or optimization of the form of production through the implementation of irrigation systems, use of machinery or other technology. In any case, the Innovation Funds seek to generate small changes that contribute to compliance with the plan reflected in the farm redesign.
There are encouraging testimonials that mention that the Innovation Fund is an excellent contribution and that they decide about the investments they want to do unlike other interventions that already come with materials. They also mention that the Innovation Fund is a great support due to the ease of acquiring it compared to financial institutions where credits are simply denied.
An example is Mr. Patricio Guamán from the community of Colimburo, who purchased a mower to manage his fruit trees on his farm. On the one hand, this makes it easier for him to do minimum tillage, contributing to the protection of the soil on his farm. On the other hand, as he mentions, he has reduced the costs of managing his crops by up to USD $50 per month in wages.
Mrs. Margarita Gutierres (first picture) from the Ambuquí community mentions that she comes from a home where the majority are women and that the only man takes care of the cultural tasks of growing her trees. The fumigations were done with a backpack pump and each time, Margarita had to pass the product in buckets. Now, with the stationary pump that she acquired, this physical effort will be avoided for both her and her brother. Likewise, she acquired a mower for the cultural activities of her farm.
These innovations implemented on the farms contribute to the optimization of time in management activities, reduce physical effort, save money, so that people have more time to devote to other activities, that is, the small changes that are being achieved on the farms. In general, these small changes that are generated on the farms contribute little by little to improving the living conditions of the participating families.