The team and I spent the better part of yesterday morning learning more about Agro XXI, the Bolivian NGO responsible for founding and supporting CEAAT (the agricultural school we have been documenting for the last two weeks). Although the Executive Director of Agro XXI, Marcello—not to be confused with Marcelino, the head of the school, or Marcello, the CEAAT student oft photographed for this blog—was the first person to greet us upon our arrival in Villamontes, we hadn’t had a chance to learn about his organization in-depth until yesterday. But, after spending the last weeks getting to know the students and faculty of CEAAT and learning as much as possible about the inner-workings of the school, it was time to turn our focus to the business end of things.
Agro XXI, founded in 2001, is dedicated to improving the lives of rural populations in the Chaco region of Bolivia by supporting small producers and educating them about how, by working together as a community of like-minded individuals, they can best take advantage of their land and talents. In large part, it does this by encouraging the formation of cooperatives—five of its main projects focus on cheese production, organic meat production, the harvesting and processing of the native algarrobo plant, honey production, and fruit cultivation. In a region where individual farmers and small producers can become fiercely competitive with each other, to the point of damaging their land and thereby their own chances at economic success, the kind of education Agro XXI provides is desperately needed. By working together, pooling resources, caring for the land, and increasing the size of their collective bounties, agricultural collectives are in a much better position to market their products, both locally and nationally, than individual producers. With this knowledge comes increased profitability. Eventually, the economic success of the collective allows each member to become a self-sustaining small producer, a breed of businessman that, as it stands, is nearly extinct in the Chaco.
What Agro XXI does, then, is primarily the work of changing the attitudes of rural people when it comes to self-sustainability, helping to create a new kind of market economy in regions that are currently struggling with widespread poverty. By breaking the cycle of desperate competitiveness that prevents many small producers from working together and educating them about the best ways to maximize both product and profit, Agro XXI aims to improve the quality of life of rural people throughout the Chaco region.
The agricultural school at CEAAT, Marcello claims, is Agro XXI’s “star process.” (Since, as are all things, the work that they do is a work in progress, Agro XXI prefers to speak in terms of its processes rather than its projects.) The students at the school aren’t just learning about fruits, vegetables, and caring for the land—although that they are. They are also learning about the business of running a small farm, about working together with their peers, and about becoming the kind of responsible producers that Agro XXI aims to help shape. While the processes mentioned above—meat production, cheese production, etc.—work with adults, the school aims to instill the same values in the next generation of small producers, and in doing so, create the next generation of community leaders in this part of the Chaco. It is for this reason that the school’s work is so important to the region.
Today, we interviewed Marcello more in-depth for our film, and he spoke about the school’s future. Eventually, he hopes to have ten mini-processes working within the school, including systems of milk, honey, and tomato production. When the school is running at full speed, not only will these processes provide positive business models for the students as they grow into the next generation of agricultural leaders, but the sale of the products at market will generate enough revenue to keep the school running without the need for outside financial support. At this point, Agro XXI and is supporting the school by raising money to procure all of the land, buildings, animals and materials necessary to get these processes up and running—a cost they estimate at $25,000 total.
The interview with Marcello proved to be some of the most important work we’ve done so far for the film. He is so well-spoken, organized, and committed to improving his home region that you get the sense that here is a man who can actually affect the kind of positive change Students of the World is all about. Of course, he still has a long way to go—the school, wonderful as it is, is nowhere near the place it eventually hopes to be—but the students are certainly lucky to have a man like Marcello at the helm.
- Jim