ERA´s Pollen Program educates the next generation of smallholder farmers about regenerative agroforestry practices and empowers women by helping them increase their incomes through processing & commercializing the forest products.
Most rural schools are not educating the next generation of farmers about regenerative agroforestry practices. The schools are not equipped with the curriculum or expertise to educate and train rural youth. This is where ERA comes in. We partner with schools and set up Agroforestry Learning Hubs, offering students the opportunity to get hands-on training from our team of agroforestry experts!
Our results to date are impressive:
We have implemented 3 Agroforestry Learning Hubs:
1 Learning Hub at the Family Agricultural School (EFA) in Porto Nacional, Tocantins;
1 Learning Hub at a Permaculture Farm in Rio de Contas, Bahia; and
1 Learning Hub at the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT) in Palmas.
We have offered over 30 courses: The students now have an opportunity to get hands-on experiences on how to plant, manage and harvest. Course topics include:
planning and implementing an agroforestry systems,
management techniques for the rainy and dry season,
biofertilizer production and permaculture,
bee keeping, and
entrepreneurship & planning your own business plan
We trained over 900 students: focusing on youth from assentamentos across Tocantins.
We scaled our project and implemented 13 Family Agroforestry Systems: ERA selected 13 youth who participated in our courses to receive their own agroforestry system at their family farms and become part of our Advanced Training group. These students have the opportunity to enhance and deepen their practice with agroforestry by managing their own system. This also brings enhanced income generation opportunities to these families as well as food security.
We have produced over 4 tons of turmeric: ERA and the smallholder farmers have already harvested 4 tons of turmeric root from the agroforestry systems. ERA supported a women's cooperative and purchased equipment for them to transform the turmeric root into turmeric powder increasing their incomes.
We have empowered over 450 women: ERA has improved women's knowledge and income. For every course ERA offers, 50% of the participants are women. We monitor and measure the impacts our projects have on female students through applying questionnaires and verifying our impacts through the W+ standard. Agroforestry brings women back into farming, because the agroforestry management, harvesting and processing are all activities that women can lead.
We have generated 37,000 W+ Units: ERA applied the W+ standard and verified the project's results between 2021 and 2023, using a third party auditor, the Social Alliance Network. 25% of the sales of the units go directly back to the women, where they decide what to do with the proceeds.
If you'd like more details about the courses offered and photos from our impact, please download our Pollen Program Impact Overview, below.
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