Fernando is very familiar with the tiring challenges of farming the land around his home in the Olancho area of Honduras.

For many years, he has spent hours in the fields, often with the sun beating down and the air thick with heat. His body has felt the aches that can come with the repetitive actions of digging, preparing, planting, and watering. Fernando also knows the pain of crushing disappointment when crops fail despite his best efforts. His family is counting on his income.

In Fernando’s community—like other areas that comprise Central America’s Dry Corridor—farming livelihoods are severely impacted by changes in climate. Farmers are enduring long droughts, reduced rainfall, and unpredictable rainfall seasons—and struggling with low crop yields.

When farmers cannot meet their daily needs, the threat of malnutrition is very real, especially for children and those already vulnerable due to health conditions. Some farming families have left their home in search of a better life, but they face uncertain futures elsewhere.

As Fernando explains, to lose a crop in this part of the world is risky: “[When agriculture fails] because of climate change, you lose your seeds, your fertilizers. And, if you lose money like that, not only can you not look after your family, [but] you also get into debt, and that’s dangerous. If you get into debt with the banks or private lenders, if you can’t pay back because you have no harvest, they’ll take your land, your house, you become destitute—and you just can’t risk that. That’s one of the reasons people are migrating so much.”

To equip Fernando and his fellow farmers to increase their crop yields, World Renew works with a local partner to promote food security, community health, and access to clean water. Most importantly, we help train farmers in sustainable ways of adapting their farming practices to increase their chance of success in a changing climate.

When farmers like Fernando join these trainings, they receive support including access to drought-tolerant seeds, irrigation systems, farming tools, and technical advice. As he applied these new farming methods, Fernando has seen great improvements in his crop quantity and quality, even in dry conditions. He says, “Since the big droughts, we have lost a lot of faith in farming, but this project, working together with irrigation, restores our faith in being able to make agriculture work here. We’ve learned these new techniques, and we’ve had this big help, and it’s stopping people from migrating.”

Best of all, Fernando’s adapted farming methods have led to him having more food to eat, as well as to sell for a profit. “We’ve planted a variety of crops here, including planting very high-quality beans to sell as seeds locally,” Fernando shares.

Fernando’s farming life still has tiring and challenging moments. But, thanks to help from World Renew, he is also experiencing farming successes beyond what seemed possible. These new-found farming techniques have given him, his family, and his entire community the fruitful hope of improved food security.

You can give the same hope to other farmers and families around the world with a gift to our food security programs. Farmers will receive seeds, tools, and training to start growing more food for the future.