Members of the productive group Cultivando Nuestra Tierra (Cultivating Our Land) participated in the documentary film, Sembrando Resiliencia: Cómo el Trabajo Conjunto Transforma Vidas en Honduras (Sowing Resilience: How Working Together Transforms Lives in Honduras).
The documentary captures the voices of three families from the Cultivando Nuestra Tierra group, comprised of 15 agricultural producers who, together with their families, participated in the filming as representatives of the thousands of rural families involved in the Integrated Rural Development and Productivity Project (SAG-ProOccidente).
Their testimonies speak not only of a single community but also the collective experience of producers across the six departments within the project’s scope (La Paz, Lempira, Intibucá, Ocotepeque, Copán, and Santa Bárbara) and, through them, the experience of Honduran farmers committed to staying, producing, and building a future rooted in the land.
There are stories that cannot be contained within a report. They are written in the calloused hands of those who rise before dawn, in the eyes of the children who now head to school without ever missing breakfast, and in the silent, powerful decision not to board that truck crossing the border. The Cultivando Nuestra Tierra group from Los Mangos, Yamaranguila, Intibucá, is one such story, and this is how it is told.
Brayan Maquenci: The Land as a Second Chance
There was a suitcase half-packed. It represented a dream that millions of Hondurans know intimately: crossing the border and reaching the north to send money back to their families. Brayan Maquenci, a young producer belonging to a local production group, had just such a plan, but something stopped him. Or perhaps it was the land itself that called him back.
With the support of SAG-ProOccidente, a project led by Honduras’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG) and implemented by ACDI/VOCA, Brayan gained access to a casa malla (mesh house). This climate-smart technology protects crops against pests, heavy rain, and erratic droughts.
The results were not long in coming. In his first production cycle, he managed to harvest 12,000 pounds of tomatoes, generating over 100,000 lempiras—earnings that had a direct impact on his family’s economic well-being. Today, his second cycle is already underway, with 6,000 Anaconda F1 bell pepper plants currently in full growth.
Currently, Brayan does not merely produce crops within the mesh house; he also cultivates open-field tomatoes using Agribon protective covers, maintains plots of chili peppers and onions, produces staple grains, and plants three tareas of corn for fresh consumption. Every decision in the process (when to irrigate, what inputs to apply, and how to mitigate risks) is backed by personalized technical assistance provided by the project.
But Brayan is more than just a farmer. He serves as the president of his community’s water board. Thanks to a water reservoir installed with the project’s support, the community of Los Mangos now has access to water in an area where no natural flow existed before. Furthermore, work is already underway on an investment proposal, in collaboration with the MANCURISJ Association of Municipalities, to consolidate this achievement and extend its benefits to the entire community.
“Thanks to the support of SAG-ProOccidente, I am able to be with my family. I had left for the United States, but that path was not part of God’s plan for me. I made the decision to stay and work the land. It is incredible what I am now able to produce.” — Brayan Maquenci, member of Cultivando Nuestra Tierra in Los Mangos
Luciano Pérez: From Day Laborer to Master of His Own Destiny
Luciano Pérez knew a different kind of weariness: long days under the sun, working on land that wasn’t his own, returning home with barely enough to get by, and living with the constant sensation that his efforts would never yield anything beyond the essentials. Gloria, his wife, lived through this experience right alongside him. Together, they shared that reality, and together they made a decision that would mark a turning point—a definitive “before and after”—in their family’s life.
Given his work as a day laborer, Luciano could not devote much time to farming, yet, he dreamed of owning his own farm, being his own boss, and tilling his own soil. With the support of SAG-ProOccidente, he learned sound agricultural practices through technical assistance.
“Thanks to the project’s technical assistance, I have managed to cultivate the land correctly. They taught us how to do things right, and now I am achieving yields that I thought were merely a dream back when we drafted the investment plan with the project technician. I had the dream, but I doubted I could ever make it happen. When the mesh house arrived, I simply couldn’t believe it; after all that waiting, everything had finally become a reality.” — Luciano Pérez, member of Cultivando Nuestra Tierra in Los Mangos
Two cultivation cycles later, after producing sweet peppers and tomatoes under a protected structure and being supported by a water reservoir, this family’s life looks completely different. Their money now stretches far enough. They buy their food in bulk. Their children continue their studies. And that horizon, which once seemed closed off, is now beginning to open toward a dream that once felt distant: having a casa malla of their own.
“We worked long hours, and neither my wife nor I felt we had a future. We decided to change jobs to generate more income. Today, we see the changes, and we feel satisfied.” — Luciano Pérez, member of Cultivando Nuestra Tierra in Los Mangos
“Before, our money didn’t go very far. Now we have the income to buy in bulk, and we have the financial stability to cover my children’s education.” — Gloria Rodríguez, Luciano’s wife
The Leadership Sustaining the Change
If Brayan is the young producer who chose to stay, and Gloria and Luciano are the family that took a chance on changing their story, then María Concepción Rivera Martínez is the heart that holds it all together.
María Concepción serves as president of the Cultivando Nuestra Tierra group and of the community board. She is a Lenca woman who has become the visible face of a transformation that extends far beyond agricultural crops. Her leadership effectively integrates production, community organization, and a forward-looking vision.
With support from SAG-ProOccidente, the group she heads received climate-smart technologies, including mesh houses, water reservoirs, and greenhouses, representing a total investment of 1,346,189 lempiras, of which SAG-ProOccidente contributed roughly 54 percent. María was the first to take the leap, planting tomatoes under a protected structure.
Today, the group she leads generates 15 direct jobs and over 780 daily workdays, with a production target exceeding 15,000 pounds of tomatoes per cycle, all on land that was previously overgrown brush. And their sights are already set beyond the fields: securing access to formal markets, establishing ties with supermarkets, and taking the next step in consolidating their productive capacity.
“We had never worked inside a mesh house before. Now we see the difference: fewer pests, fewer chemicals, higher yields. We women are involved and empowered. We make decisions; we manage the technologies. We no longer just help out—now, we lead.” — María Concepción Rivera Martínez, President of Cultivando Nuestra Tierra in Los Mangos
This producer group is proof that when production is combined with technical support, access to water, and community organization, the results extend far beyond an individual plot of land. Families are strengthened, women are empowered, opportunities open to young people, and bonds are woven that sustain development over time. This is what unites these three stories: the certainty that change is real when it is built collectively.
Below are more still images from the day of the documentary shoot in the community of Los Mangos. The full documentary will be available to watch soon!
ABOUT SAG-PROOCCIDENTE
SAG-ProOccidente is a five-year project implemented by ACDI/VOCA and led by Honduras’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG). SAG-ProOccidente works with multiple partners, including local producers, the private sector, indigenous organizations, and small and medium enterprises, to build sustainable economic and climate resilience and reduce migration out of the country, promoting self-reliance through local ownership.
SAG-ProOccidente is providing technical assistance and training to more than 10,000 agriculture and livestock producers across six departments and 88 municipalities by helping them adopt new climate-smart technologies and practices and improving their access to finance.
Activities take place in the western departments of Santa Bárbara, Copán, Ocotepeque, Intibucá, Lempira, and La Paz, focusing on horticulture, fruit, coffee, cacao, dairy cattle, and those related to cultural products of ethnic origin.
The project is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) through the Spanish Fund for Sustainable Development (FEDES).
Learn more about SAG-ProOccidente.
Learn more about our work in Honduras.
