Small steps produce a grain of progress in Latin America

from the Miami Herald
A grain project in Ecuador reflects a new focus for the Inter-American Development Bank, which convenes this week in Miami Beach.

BY JIM WYSS
When insects start to yellow the leaves of the quinoa stalks that surround Alexandra Balla's hut, she makes a mixture of garlic, red pepper, and sometimes chamomile to ward them off.

It's a technique that farmers in the Ecuadorean highlands have used for generations, and one that has been kept alive by abject poverty that leaves little room for commercial pesticides or agrochemicals.

Now, Balla and about 2,800 of her neighbors are being rewarded in the international marketplace for their time-proven growing methods. These Quichua-speaking farmers are part of an Inter-American Development Bank pilot project that helps send organically grown, fair-trade quinoa -- a tiny grain packed with protein -- to markets in the United States and Europe.

If becoming part of the global food chain is new for Balla, working with small farming cooperatives is new for the IDB, which holds its annual meeting in Miami Beach this week and next. The five-day meeting will bring about 6,000 government and bank officials and representatives of the organizations they help to the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The IDB, headquartered in Washington, is better known for financing large-scale, multimillion-dollar projects in the Americas -- and that continues to be its main focus. But about two years ago, the IDB began to allow its field offices to take the lead on small-scale projects of up to $150,000. Ecuador was the guinea pig for the initiative.

SMALLER PROJECTS

Among the changes that have come to the bank under Luis Alberto Moreno, its president for the last 2 ½ years, are attention to smaller projects that focus on the environment, microfinance, and lending to private enterprises without government backing -- known as sovereign guarantees.

''We have been very successful in developing the nonsovereign side,'' Moreno said in a telephone interview. ``In 2005, we lent $600 million [in this area], and we are now at $3 billion.''

The IDB also has vowed to be more responsive to the region's needs.

For the farmers of San Vicente Ocpote, that means developing a system that pays them a premium for harvesting crops in an environmentally sustainable way.

''Many of these people need something as simple as a sanitation certificate so they can export yogurt that they are already producing,'' explained Marco Macias, a sector specialist for the IDB's Multilateral Investment Fund, which finances initiatives such as the quinoa project.

''It's a matter of $4,000 or $5,000,'' Macias said. ``Does it make sense for that decision to take place in Washington or to take three years? Now we can do it in five months, and the impact on the community is much greater.''

EDUADOR'S EFFORTS

Since it launched the initiative, Ecuador has financed eight such grass-roots projects and has approved an additional nine. The projects include teaching communities how to skin rabbits, supplying fur for handbag makers, and helping local companies hire disabled workers.

On the quinoa project, the IDB is working through Ecuador's Corporation for the Promotion of Exports and Investments and a rural nonprofit called ERPE. The IDB's $84,000 investment is going toward creating a system to track quinoa production from field to dining table, and developing an internal quality-control system that would lower the cost of certification and encourage others to join the initiative.

Ecuador's indigenous groups have been growing quinoa for centuries, but the product hasn't always been well received, said Juan Pérez, the executive director of ERPE.

''For a long time, people called quinoa Indian food, and in the city they wouldn't eat it,'' he said. Farmers grew it for personal consumption. Those who did sell it did so at a loss.

But as international demand for the product has started to grow, the national market is taking a second look. Now, demand is making quinoa production ''one of the few avenues that farmers have to make a dignified living,'' Pérez said.

Balla will get about $38 for a 220-pound sack of organic quinoa and an additional $3 from fair-trade organizations in Europe. That's about $15 more than she would receive at the local market for traditional quinoa. In this part of the nation, where most people live on just a few hundred dollars a year, $15 makes a difference.

''I don't even try to sell at the market anymore,'' said Balla, 18, who uses the income to support her grandmother. ``They offer prices that are too low and then tell you to go away if you ask for more.''

Thousands of miles away in Athens, Ga., the owners of Inca Organic buy from ERPE and other Ecuadorean cooperatives to supply U.S. makers of gluten-free crackers and specialty pilaf products sold in Whole Foods and Wild Oats stores.

`BETTER FOR YOU'

''People are starting to realize that whole grains are important for your diet and better for you,'' said Marjorie Leventry, who runs Inca Organics with her husband, Bob. ``Because quinoa is so easy to cook . . . demand is exploding.''

For the last three years, the company says, it hasn't been able to keep up with demand for Ecuadorean organic quinoa -- which its customers prize over Bolivian or Peruvian varieties. It could sell about 1,000 metric tons a year, but ERPE's production this year will be shy of 600 metric tons.

Two and a half years into this new way of doing business, Macias says that such experiences have convinced the IDB of the benefits of working small.