A cocoa farmer succeeds in plant propagation
Los Rios Province, Ecuador
Don Humberto has been a close collaborator with the SUCCESS Alliance Project since 2005 when he participated in an ACDI/VOCA Farmer Field School in cocoa management, plant nursery production, pruning, rehabilitation and grafting. Since then, Mr. Humberto has provided high quality grafting services to an ever-expanding number of communities and provinces in Ecuador. In addition, he has trained number of fellow farmers and youth in this skill.
Don Humberto is a farmer from the small rural community of no more than 120 people called Maria Filomena in Canton Ventanas, Los Ríos Province, Ecuador. Don Humberto farms cocoa along with coffee, citrus, avocado and other fruit and is a member of the Union y Progreso Association of Ventanas, through which he came to participate in his first Farmer Field School. The practical learning experience he gained there, along with expert guidance by ACDI/VOCA technicians, strengthened his knowledge of and ability to graft cocoa plants.
To put his new skills into practice and supplement his income, Don Humberto decided to start a cocoa nursery in his farm, in which he grew over 65,000 grafted cocoa plants in 2006. Don Humberto has a clonal garden of about 600 cocoa plants from highly productive, selected varieties that he acquired at INIAP’s Pichilingue Experiment Station (the main cocoa research station of the national agriculture research institute). He uses these plants as the propagation material for his grafted plants to ensure that they are high quality and well performing.
That year, Don Humberto started grafting plants for some of his neighbors, and due to his significant ability and success, he began providing his services to most members of Union y Progreso over the next few months. He soon further extended his services to several farmers throughout the Los Ríos Province. Presently, his reputation as a skilled cocoa tree grafter has taken him to the provinces of Guayas, Manabí and Esmeraldas and to the Amazonia region. In addition to grafting, he provides rehabilitation and pruning services to many of the farmers that hire his services. Over the last three years Don Humberto has grafted over 700,000 cocoa plants. His rate of successful grafts is between 96% and 98% and has reached 100% on specific projects.
Don Humberto’s close collaboration with the SUCCESS Alliance Project during this time has enabled him to continue to strengthen his skills and knowledge. Due to his remarkable work, he was chosen by ACDI/VOCA to receive a budding, micro-graft training in October 2009 and can now graft cocoa seedlings 18 to 20 day after germination. Last December, he budded 26 very young cocoa plants with 100% success at a farm demonstration in Cerecita, Guayas.
Don Humberto demonstrates an affinity towards helping others and has taught his craft to several others who now put their skills to work on their farms or make a living using them on others. Many work with him whenever he has a big grafting contract, which is often. Through this work, Don Humberto embodies the tradition of the SUCCESS Alliance to transfer the skills and provide the services needed to enhance the cocoa sector in Ecuador and improve the livelihoods of participants throughout the value chain.