Even though it is our smallest program, SHI-Panama has established itself in the Cocle region of Panama as a preeminent organization working on sustainable rural development.  Partnering with local universities and NGOs, Peace Corps Panama and government agencies such as the Panamanian EPA, SHI-Panama has been pivotal in disseminating appropriate technologies, like wood-conserving stoves, and providing training in the core principles of sustainable small-scale farming.  

By embracing new ideas, SHI-Panama is altering the face of sustainable agriculture, local markets and more.  With the support of SHI business partner, Eco-Libris, the program is organizing bi-monthly “canastas” (or CSA - Community Supported Agriculture as termed in the US) of fresh produce from participants to interested clients in and around Panama City.  Currently ten families from El Entradero  and  others from La Tranquilla, San Pedro and Bella Florida are participating, offering a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, including bananas, plantains, tomatoes, parsley, celery, mustard greens, eggplant and more.

Staff are currently training on ecological and holistic pest management, a more evolved offshoot of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), and they are learning concepts related to bio-intensive gardens.  Beginning in late winter/early spring, SHI-Panama will begin a comparative analysis of the ecological impact of bio-intensive gardens versus traditional gardens.

SHI-Nicaragua recently played host to a visit by SHI’s Board of Directors and the annual field staff meeting where staff from all four country programs gathered to share ideas, technology and improve on current work.  Everyone contributed to the installation of appropriate technologies, such as  drip irrigation, rain catchment tanks and water filters at the local program’s demonstration farm, Center for Families and the Environment.  Nearing its completion, the Center serves to demonstrate such concepts as shade-grown cacao, bio-intensive gardens and trees grown to provide forage for goats.  The Center assists the local community and offers at-risk youth a place of refuge and self-empowerment. 

Program participants in Kukra River and Kukra Hill are busy building upon previous projects to improve soil fertility, which include the stimulation of indigenous micro-organism activity and reforestation efforts.  With the support of other national and international organizations, SHI-Nicaragua and its participants have planted over 41,000 trees in environmentally sensitive areas and degraded lands throughout the Cerro Silva Reserve in the South Atlantic region of Nicaragua.

Since the Fall 2009, SHI-Honduras has been working closely with field staff to restructure the program based on newly defined goals and outcomes.  According to Country Director Yovany Munguia, the new structure provides more incentive for participant families to become sustainable and self-sufficient.  In the process of restructuring, SHI-Honduras has assisted families with the installation of over 30 drip-irrigation systems and 330 new mixed gardens featuring vegetables, medicinal plants and fruits. Families are now capable of harvesting nutrient-rich foods through the extended dry season.

Embracing the philosophy of starting small, SHI-Honduras has aided participant farmers, like German Quiroz of El Tablon, to see the results in his home garden necessary to create a much larger garden with commercial purposes.  More families are transitioning their backyards from small-scale gardens to intensive systems incorporating  sweet peppers, lettuce, cassava, mahogany trees, velvet bean, soy and much more. 

SHI-Honduras staff are in the process of testing alternatives to polyethylene tubular biodigesters, and plan to install several prototypes using a synthetic rubber commonly used as pond liner.