Link to article: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/07/in-colombia-climate-smart-villages-could-show-future-of-farming.html
Colombia is known for its fertile land and the major products it produces like coffee, sugarcane, bananas, cocoa, and rice. In Cauca, Southwest Columbia, farming practices are working to develop a sustainable plan for the future.
Global policy research at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security is working on a Cauca Climate-Smart Village project. This project has already received support and funding from multiple organizations around the world. Farmers in the Cauca area face the impacts of climate change. This can drop crop productivity, cause soil degradation, and lessen access to water. The project is supposed to help with generating evidence for the farmers’ issues, by giving reasons why they need support: “the practices, the technologies, that can help us to increase productivity and food security, that can help us to increase adaptation to climate change and variability and that can help us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Using the information the research program provides for them helps the farmers make better decisions. For example, they will gather information about the temperature, weather, or anything else that would be helpful to know from the research leaders of the project and use it to their advantage like, when to plant and which varieties of fertilizers to use. Without this project and professional help, farmers would not know this information ultimately not helping them grow and possibly making their business worse. This project has already helped the local farmers in Cauca. It has made some farmers become more self-sufficient and produce more crops. The project has also had a social impact on the locals. “Women have become more empowered in the household, they have more freedom and they are feeling that they are doing really good things for the community.” The farmers in Cauca show how projects that involve locals can have an impact huge impact across society.
Another project is “Climate-smart villages”. They have been started in 19 countries around the world. This team was looking at how rural areas could be re-designed to look more modern and presentable, “so that farmers do want their children to continue in farming.”
Small scale projects seem to work very well because it hits internally and really focuses on the needs of these small farmers helping them carry out their product better than ever. Supporting these small-town farmers would help the environment, business, economy, and more, just like any other contributing establishment. By implementing technology and help through these programs it will also influence more farming or another generation of farmers if the business starts to boom. When considering the spread of farming/ generations of farmers in these small towns, I think about when technology is thrown into the equation. It may open the eyes of young people, persuading them to continue the farming industry. By making the idea of farming more appealing it could grow young people’s interest in the farming industry.