Farming & Food Security: Semilla Nueva

We’re excited to begin our partnership with Semilla Nueva! Based in Guatemala, a country which faces the highest rate of malnutrition in the western hemisphere, Semilla Nueva focuses on sustainable agriculture to empower families through income and nutrition boosting technologies. This partnership will increase food security and provide additional income for families through the use of better crops and faming practices, impacting over 1000 families.

Claudia’s Story

Claudia has been partnering with Semilla Nueva for several years and as a mother of two children has benefited greatly from the partnership and community growth. In 2014 she began one of nutrition and food security programs and since then has expanded her farming to using Quality Protein Maize (QPM) which is a huge help in balancing out the family’s diet. Along with improving her personal farm and families nutrition Claudia and her boys have enjoyed more community events. Last Mothers Day Semilla Nueva hosted an event for the community mothers and their children to come and cook together, learning healthy habits together.

ODW + Semilla Nueva

This partnership will support and expand Semilla Nueva’s programs to teach farmers to grow higher nutrient versions of staple crops in the southern Pacific coast of Guatemala. This program fosters community engagement with farmers coming together and learning different techniques to improve their crop production, utilizing biofortified seeds for more nutritional diets to promote better health outcomes. There are two parts to this project:

Improving income through rice: This part of the projects aims to teach farmers a new way to utilize land that would otherwise be lost to flooding and provide access to zinc – an essential micronutrient lacking in the Guatemalan diet. It will also improve incomes and food security as rice is an economic opportunity for farmers who grow sesame.

Improving nutrition through Quality Protein Maize: Our partner will enable local leaders to promote Quality Protein Maize (QPM) as corn that provides families with more energy and better nutrition, increasing the number of families who plant and consume the crop on a daily basis. Working with 1,000+ families, Semilla Nueva will teach them how to save and store the QPM seed they harvest, ensuring their food supply for an entire year, with additional seed saved to plant for the following season.