The seeds are in the ground, and so are the irrigation pipes. With the start of the rainy season, Darling and his family have been able to resume their farming work. Drop by drop, the PECAN rainwater reservoir is filling up, a promise of better times ahead.

At the end of May, the first rains were light, but regular. This was sufficient to convince Darling Esposito Ramirez to sow. The seed corn is in the ground, and the tomato plants are growing steadily in an improvised nursery before being planted out in the fields.

About 50 metres farther on, the reservoir built by PECAN is beginning to hold water and fill up with the rains. Darling will have to wait a few more months before the huge hole is full: traditionally, the heavy rains begin in August. For the moment, the 27-year-old is not worried. He trusts in Mother Nature and won’t need his reservoir before the end of the year, since the rain is providing all the necessary moisture at the moment.

For sowing in the dry season, water from the reservoir will be brought to the fields in plastic pipes about 5 cm in diameter. The plants will be watered by a drip system: little black tubes run along each furrow. At regular intervals along each tube, a thin slit allows a few millilitres of the precious liquid to drip directly at the foot of the growing plant. Simple and effective in a country in which water is a rare commodity.

A tried and tested solution

“I have hope,” says Darling, calmly. “I want the technician to help me improve my working methods and reduce the diseases that affect my vegetables. We want to improve ourselves. I have high hopes of prosperity.”

The experience of the 40-odd producers associated with PECAN for the past year gives good reason for hope. Several have doubled the number of harvests they have in the year. But most importantly, according to a survey recently conducted on behalf of the project, there has been a substantial increase in income. Growing Nicaragua’s staple crops, corn and frijoles (black beans), proves much less profitable than planting other vegetables such as peppers and tomatoes.

The PECAN survey estimates that growing tomatoes or peppers can provide a profit of about US$1,300 per harvest. This is close to twice the average annual income in Nicaragua.

In the Las Palmeras community, Darling has his feet planted firmly on the hilly ground. His dreams of fortune are modest. First, he wants to improve his little house with its leaking roof. Francisca, his 21-year-old wife, is surprised to find herself daydreaming. Embarrassedly, she confesses to longing for a gas cooker. “They are easier to cook on than a wood stove, and they don’t smoke.”