A street scene
in Belen, the mountainous western region of Honduras.
A street scene
in Belen, the mountainous western region of Honduras.
The following are excerpts from Elizabeth Skinner's trip report upon return to the United States after a ten-day stay in Belen Gualcho, a town in the Ocotepeque region of western Honduras. Elizabeth and fellow Vermont volunteer Jim Gallot spent their time with the Belen Gualcho Apple Growing Project that involves 500 apple growers in 25 communities and works closely with Proyecto Aldea Global (PAG), a non-governmental organization that began working with the growers in 1987 to try different apple varieties. Elizabeth used her marketing background to analyze the marketing and distribution needs of the Belen growers. Jim who is an orchardist himself, shared his skills and recommendations with the Belen growers.
Elizabeth Skinner's Report:
Background
There are now approximately 250,000 trees of the Anna and Golden Dorset
varieties on approximately 282.2 hectares (approximately 697 acres) of
land spread over the 25 communities. The primary crop of the producers
is apples, but they also cultivate peaches, blackberries, pineapple, coffee,
and corn. According to PAG, 70,000 of the 250,000 apple trees are producing.
PAG also built (and is in the process of finishing) a cold storage, packing, and processing plant in Belen. A canning plant was purchased from Ball Cannery and set up in March 1996. It was tested in November 1996. Some samples have been made, but currently there is no production, nor is there any sort of marketing plan for production. PAG hopes that eventually, the processing plant will be an outlet for 50% of the apples produced by the Belen growers (Asociacion de Productores Lencas or APROL).
Activities (Summary)
Jim and Elizabeth met with many people including the president of APROL,
the current Peace Corps volunteer in the area, PAG project coordinators,
Chet Thomas (director of PAG), John Chater (regional coordinator of the
Farmer to Farmer program), USAID representatives, fruit managers of supermarkets,
a representative of the Zamorano Agricultural School, and the Belen growers.
They spent their time in the fields, markets, and organization headquarters.
Results and Recommendations
APPLES:
The biggest obstacle facing the Belen growers is transportation and roads.
It appears that the production obstacles can be overcome with increased
expertise and extension work. However, even if growers improve quality
and productions levels, it will be an enormous challenge to get fruit to
market.
PAG has been and is in the process of constructing roads, but most communities remain fairly inaccessible except by foot and horseback. Where there are roads, they are usually dirt, which makes it very difficult (even impossible) to get motorized transportation in and out of the communities during the rainy season (which coincides with harvest time).
From my research during the trip, I learned that the middlemen (coyote) come up to Belen and several of the other communities and buy fruit. Apparently, the price they offer is 4 lempira/lb (as compared to the retail price of 9-11 lempira/lb, approximately $.30/lb.) However, given the enormous diffficulty of getting to the communities with a vehicle and absorbing other risks, it seems to me that the coyotes earn their money and perform a valuable service in the marketing chain. According to the pricing information I received from APROL, the growers make approximately 44% of the retail price, the coyotes (whose share is split with the Feria Agriculturas, the wholesalers) make about 33%, and the retailers about 22%. If this information is accurate (and it may vary widely depending on time of year and other conditions), the APROL growers are receiving a respectable margin.
It would be very helpful for APROL and PAG to better understand the Honduran market and to understand how to manage the marketing operation...APROL seems to be aware of the pitfalls and challenges of cooperative management.
PROCESSING PLANT:
PAG already has a processing facility with a dryer at the San Ysidro-Yure
project. They are working through techical difficulties and are hoping
to produce dried fruit. PAG was thinking at one point about organic production
and processing.
They hope to process up to 50% of the apples produced by APROL into
various products...Several samples of jams and jellies have been made which
have been met with enthusiastic response. However, PAG believes the recipes
need to be refined to better deal with preservation issues in the tropical
climate. The jams that have been made contain pineapple and other products,
but not apple. It is my understanding that apple is a relatively new product
on the Honduran market though you can find apple jellies and jams (all
resembling an extremely sweet apple butter!)...It may be possible to develop
a product that uses apple as a base, such as pineapple-apple. In many bakeries
you can buy apple turnovers. Apple may be a likely substitute, but it may
take a concerted effort to win customers.
A local farmer
at work in the canning plant in Yure where tropical fruits become value-added
products.
The other constraint that APROL/PAG faces is that fact that they are apparently only able to procure 16 ounce jars which are a major portion of the expense. If they hope to market product for retail consumption, they may have to find other sources.
At the final meeting with the APROL producers, Jim and I passed around bags oried apples that we brought from Vermont. They had never seen dried apples but really seemed to enjoy them. If there is a way to successfully dry them, it could be a potential product. The only dried fruit we saw in the supermarket was dried cashew (fruit). At minimum, dried apples could be another source of nutrition at times of the year when apples are not available.
Below are some specific questions that PAG and APROL asked:
OTHER:
Lodging and food: The accomodations were fine throughout, though basic
(cold showers, no electricity). Volunteers need to be flexible. The only
complaint was lack of clean drinking water. Volunteers should bring travel
water bottles. Water was not available for sale in Belen (only Coke) but
was available at gas stations and other stores along the main highway...We
had some wonderful meals in the different communities...If volunteers are
in one place for several days on end, it would be great to be able to cook.
The weekly market has plenty to offer.
Future volunteers may wish to bring photos or postcards of their state that can be left as momentos. Also, sunscreen and hat are necessary; insect repellent may be, depending upon location (not necessary in Belen).
Some Ideas for Volunteer Opportunities for VT-Honduras Volunteers:
Apples:
Processing:
Jim Gallot's Report:
General Observations
1) The Lenca Producers face an enormous challenge. A quarter million young
trees spread between 500-600 novice growers in an area with no established
marketing infrastructure would be a challenge in ANY region of the world,
but adding in the poor transportation system creates a daunting task indeed.
However, the Lenca are well-organized, hard-working, and accustomed to
making do under less than ideal conditions, and aided by technical assistance
that PAG can provide, I am reasonably certain that they can rise to the
challenge.
A hillside cornfield,
typical of many of the farms in the area.
2) PAG is well respected in the area, and has had a broad agenda in the Belen region including community drinking water systems, health care and improving agricultural methods. PAG is a tremendous resource for the Farmer to Farmer program to coordinate visits and maximize the impact of volunteers in the area. Their staff (and therefore time) is limited, so care should be taken to ensure that the benefits to PAG outweigh the expenditure of their valuable time.
3) Vermont-Honduras Farmer to Farmer has expressed interest in working in the La Esperanza region of Honduras. PAG's area of operations includes Belen and a few other areas, but not La Esperanza. If Farmer to Farmer develops a project for the La Esperanza region, it should also be looking for someone in that region to do the coordinating, not PAG.
Identified Problems:
Cultural:
1) Tree Vigor - This is the most striking problem in the orchards, and applies to all orchards seen, though a few were better than the others. There is essentially no extension growth (growth of the end of the branches) on almost all the trees I saw. Growth should be 6-8" on mature trees, and 12-18" on developing trees. Almost all trees were in the 1" range. There appear to be several contributing causes:
a) Fertility - fertilizers or legume rotation crops are not used much, and the soil fertility poor.
b) Competition - it was common in many of the orchards that we saw for
the trees to be interplanted with corn. This not only resulted in root
competition for moisture and nutrients, but the local variety corn grows
12-14" tall, and probably resulted in competition for light as well.
Considering the small size of the farms (1-5 acres) interplanting with
some crop will be necessary, but low-growing crops, kept 1 meter from the
tree, should cause minimal competition, especially beans, which would also
add nitrogen to the soil for use by the trees.
A growers' meeting in one of the villages. Jim is wearing the white
hat and red suspenders.
c) Over-cropping - this was especially severe on young trees, which were runted out at 3-4" in height, and stood no chance at growing into mature trees unless the growers defruit the trees for several years in a row. Thinning out the fruit, and defruiting the young trees is hard for these growers, because they have so little, but those that cannot make the mental adjustment will not succeed at apple-growing.
d) Lack of Pruning/Training - Lloyd Baron from Oregon was involved with the growers during the initial planting stages and up until 1993. He advocated the use of an open-center training system for the trees while I was recommending a central-leader tree. Tuesday afternoon, one of the growers wanted to know why Lloyd recommended one system, and I another. Truth of the matter was they weren't doing anything and I said it doesn't matter so much which system they use, as long as they use it and stick to it. Pruning of the branches to thin them out to improve light penetration was very much a problem. Unfortunately the fruit was already set, and cutting off branches was very traumatic for the growers, so mostly I demonstrated how to spread the branches out to improve light penetration and increase the effective size of the tree, and pointed out which branches to remove after harvest. There were some orchards trained fairly well to the open-center system, particularly in Suptal.
e) Root problems - in Copantillo there was an orchard that had grown well in its early years, but now was unproductive and had very low vigor. The rootstock was MM106, and a few trees were clearly dying and showed necrosis of the roots and crown. The weak trees may be suffering from partial root death caused by prolonged wet soil during the rainy season. This should be checked out, and if roots are having trouble, soil should be mounded up 2" above the graft line to encourage rooting of the scion (top part of the tree).
2) Mineral deficiencie- There were some cases of fruit spotting similar to calcium deficiency, and some marginal necrosis of leaves, but these seemed minor in comparison to other problems.
Logistical:
1) Harvest - 'Anna' fruit that were clearly not ready for harvest were
easy to remove from the tree. There were complaints about the fruit dropping
before it could be harvested. My first reaction was that they were waiting
too long before harvesting but 'Anna' may simply be obnoxious in dropping
before it's truly ready. Difficult to evaluate at this time, since we weren't
near harvest. Red color was pretty good on the fruit, especially considering
we weren't near harvest. Nights are consistently cool (60's F) which helps
greatly.
Mountain trail to Suptal. The only access is by foot or horseback.
2) Transportation - A big problem. There is nothing Farmer to Farmer
can do about the condition (or non-existence) of roads but perhaps Farmer
to Farmer can provide some assistance in developing methods for packing
the apples for travel into Belen. This was an area that the Belen growers
asked for help in. They are the experts in hauling products by horseback,
and I think they have the solutions for the problems themselves, but perhaps
a mediated workshop with someone from the north knowing the travel requiremnts
for apples combined with the local knowledge of how to construct containers
and pack an animal will be productive.
Jim's mount on the
way out to Suptal; transportation is often on horseback.
Pests:
From what I saw there is very little in common between the pest complexes in Vermont and Honduras with exception of the Apple Scab.
1) Leafcutter ants - quite possibly the most severe problem faced by the growers. Leafcutter ants can completely defoliate a tree in a short period of time. This combined with the problems outlined above concerning vigor can spell severe trouble for the tree. There are apparently two kinds, a 'shallow' one whose nest is close to the surface, which can be destroyed by pouring gasoline into the nest and igniting it, and a 'deep' one which the gasoline won't affect. They know of no control method for the 'deep' ones, and this may be an area where Zamorano can be of help.
2) A large (1.25" or so) brown inchworm. I saw only a few of these, but they were reported to be a problem, so maybe they develop in greater numbers later in the season.
3) Scab - variable in incidence. Most orchards had only a little bit, but one region (visited on Friday) is frequently covered in cloud (fog) and scab was already severe in those two communities, even though it was the dry season. The rainy season may allow for severe development in all areas.
4) Fruit rot (probably not bitter rot) - fairly common, incidence may increase during rainy season.
Climate:
At this point, I'm not sure whether climate should be listed as a problem or just an interesting footnote. These are confused trees. From what I can gather there is a rainy season (June through October) when it rains heavily almost daily, and a dry season which isn't completely dry, but rains are much less frequent, and can go for weeks between rains. It gets generally cooler in December and January, with occasional freezing in the highest regions. There are generally 2-4 flushes of blooming (only one community reported just one floration, and that was at one of the highest altitudes, and it reportedly froze and fell off each year) starting in December or January and coming at roughly one-month intervals. Based on this, I assume the chilling requirements are met in October, November, and early December...The harvest from the trees is spread over a 3-month period. It is hard to imagine one flowering producing harvest over that great a time period, and I rather suspect that the flower buds are blooming a few at a time, in several flushes, with some fruit being set during each flush of bloom, resulting in a staggering harvest. This may be an advantage, effectively spreading the harvest transportation over a longer period of time.
The trees are trying to bloom in the middle of the dry season, and depending
on the community, the trees may or may not be suffering from drought and
unable to start their growth vigorously. There is a tremendous range in
elevations (from 1300 meters at Jualaca to almost 3000 meters in the areas
that experience freezing) and because of the mountainous terrain, variations
in moisture patterns from rain shadows to daily fog. A better handle on
the year-round conditions the trees are growing in will greatly aid in
identifying where the problems, and possibilities lie concerning the trees'
growth.
Farmers and project
coordinators of APROL pose for a picture in Belen.
Problems as identified by the Lenca Representatives:
1) Packing and transportation
2) Controlling pests
3) Fertilizers
4) Developing/finding reference materials that can be distributed to the individual growers so they can consult them easily without needing to go into Belen.
5) Help during harvest period.
6) Help during dormancy.
Jim made a list of "Cultural Recommendations" for the Belen Growers. His suggestions ranged from removing fruit from small trees to allow more tree growth to collecting climate data at representative communities to establishing variety trails.
Future Volunteer Visits:
At the moment I am thinking in terms of three additional visitation
periods within the next year.
Trip #1: Sometime early in the harvest period (May? June?)
Purposes:
1) Contact.evaluate/coordinate with Zamorano, especially for input on tropical
soils and developing
protocol for fertilizer tests, and for input on pest control, particularly
leafcutter ants.
2) Initiate climate data collection - train responsible people how to read the equipment, what to record and when.
3) Evaluate harvest conditions:
a) Preharvest drop
b) Determining maturity and proper picking time
c) Work with growers on packing for proper packing of
apples for transport to Belen with
minimal damage.
d) Evaluate insect, disease, and mineral deficiencies
at harvest to identify pest control areas
needing more attention.
4) Talk with and evaluate knowledge level of Extensionistas to determine their strengths and where they need help and training. Evaluate what sort of support they need to be better able to do their job effectively.
Trip #2 Fall (October/November)
The purpose of this trip is simple - to provide pruning and training
workshops in the various communities. There will be no fruit on the trees
to cause trauma to the growers as they prune (or at least minimize the
trauma). I would envision 2-3 volunteers splitting up and trying to cover
all the towns. This is perhaps ambitious, but as thorough coverage as possible.
Trip #3 January (February?)
Purposes:
1) Reinforce the concept of fruit thinning while fruit is still small,
along with de-fruiting young trees.
2) Provide any disease and pest control messages to encourage control beginning when effective rather then waiting until too late. Exact information to be determined by observations through the year and informatioon from the Extensionistas
Common to all trips will be interaction with the Extensionistas to provide whatever information they need, and answering any questions that growers may bring up. Zamorano has offered to provide a short briefing on local agriculture and climate to any volunteers on their first day in-country, and this may prove useful, especially for first-time volunteers.
