A Harvest of Training: National Farmers' Day

For coffee farmer Alejandro, there was a time when he felt his only good financial option was to leave his family and migrate from his home in Yamaranguila, Honduras. It seemed he couldn’t catch a break from bad weather, strenuous work, or limited job opportunities. Disaster after disaster made him lose heart. “I didn’t know how to improve my life. But I knew that if I left, I’d not only lose my land, I’d lose my family,” he said.

World Vision’s THRIVE program helped Alejandro turn his life around. With the training, he learned how to increase his coffee crop yield, make a better profit, and expand into other products, including fruits, vegetables, chickens, and eggs. He even learned to tend tilapia ponds, harvesting the protein-rich fish. Now Alejandro and his family have options if one of their farming endeavors fails. While migration was once on his mind, Alejandro now says, “In this place, we have everything we need for a good life.”

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It’s an all too familiar story.

?A smallholder farmer and their family sweat and strain to cultivate less than 5 acres with a crop of grain or vegetables. The harvest will provide the family’s entire income and much of their food for the year. But conditions are harsh and often unpredictable. In some parts of the world, oppressive droughts scorch the fields. Elsewhere, unexpected floods overwhelm family farms. Landslides bury crops and a household’s livelihood. Extreme weather can wipe out a smallholder farm in a matter of moments. ?

?Close to 500 million smallholder farming households make up a significant portion of the world’s poor — subsisting on less than $2 a day. If our goal is to eradicate extreme poverty, then improving the lives of this large group of farmers and their families must be a priority.

?It’s why we highlight what we call “THRIVE Week” — five national and international days that each connect to our efforts to end extreme poverty by addressing the needs of farmers. The goal of World Vision’s THRIVE (Transforming Household Resilience in Vulnerable Environments) program?is to equip families to lift themselves out of poverty by building improved and resilient livelihoods that enable significantly better incomes, food security, and child well-being

?To honor THRIVE Week and shine a spotlight on those who are transforming their lives through the World Vision program, we are bringing here are five encouraging stories that will feed your soul. Above is the first.