Rikolto has an extensive track record working in Nicaragua’s agricultural sector, dating back to the 1980s. In 2024, our projects impacted the lives of 311 producers and their families.
As of 2013, we started working with cocoa cooperatives and vegetable farmer cooperatives. Our coffee programme only started to take shape in 2017. This was also when we started adopting, for the first time in our organisation’s history, an integrated landscape approach, in the area around Lake Apanás. Currently, we run our Cocoa & coffee programme, and our Good Food for Cities programme in Matagalpa and around Lake Apanás.
Sustainable Cocoa and Coffee programme highlights for 2024
As part of the Unlocking Youth Power project, we enabled 18 young people to participate in diploma courses on sustainable cocoa production in agroforestry systems and supported them to establish 37 hectares of cocoa under agroforestry systems. We also ran 3 awareness campaigns on this topic, reaching 222 cocoa producing families. Next to this, we created opportunities for young people to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills: 26 joined an entrepreneurship training programme, 29 took part in a diploma course on soft skills needed to create your own businesses, and 35 participated in networking exchanges, experience exchanges and workshops to strengthen technical business skills such as accounting, customs management and cooperative laws. 2024 marks the last year of our operations in Nicaragua.
Good Food for Cities programme highlights for 2024
In the area around Lake Apanas and in the Dariense Mountains, Rikolto is seeking to stimulate more sustainable and agroecological food production. This is through the facilitation of the Grupo Interinstitutional Paisajes Alimentarios Sostenibles (GIPASOS APANAS). In 2024, with a view to contributing to the cohesion of the community and its connection with the environment, the platform supported collecting approximately 3,335 kg of agrochemical containers. In parallel, Rikolto and its partners set up 11 agroforestry coffee plots as reference farms and continued to validate the bio-input management of vegetable plots in 5 farms. Meanwhile, UCHON sold 18,397kg of fresh vegetables produced using good agricultural practices in 2024. This association of 6 farmer cooperatives is supported by Rikolto as a strategy to improve the marketing channels for safe food for urban markets, reaching around 161,000 citizens.
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