One week into our trip, we visited the coffee plantation around the city of Matagalpa. While it was interesting to learn about how coffee is grown and produced, it was even more interesting to learn about the way the farmers and families worked together to make it all happen. Instead of each farmers working independently and competing against one another, the farmers have come together in cooperatives. This has allowed the families to become more self-sufficient. Moreover, by selling their coffee under a co-op, farmers are eliminating competition among each other thus allowing their coffee to be sold for a fair price. Since the cooperatives depend on each member to contribute to production, there is little space for gender discrimination. This allows the women in the community to have roles in their family but also influential positions within the administrative framework of the co-ops. Since farmers are now well organized, it allows for co-operations between different co-ops such as the selling of crafts for tourists. Since coffee co-ops represent a formal organization of farmers, many coffee planters have been able to gain access to credit to improve their land and farming techniques. This has been possible due to many co-ops coming together, gaining access to credit, and distributing the money among its members. In a country where poverty is prominent, it is encouraging to see small communities come together in order to better their communities through formal requests for help, as well as finding the ability to become self sufficient and not relying on government or charity aid. The coming together of these small rural communities provide hope for Nicaraguans as they show the power and great advantages of a community fighting together instead of competing against one another. At last, on a cultural scale, these co-ops show that breaking away from the idea of competing against neighbors for goods can benefit each member of the community.
Written by Francis Briere and Leigh Hedrick