As part of the project “Fighting malnutrition of children in Chimaltenango, Guatemala”, ICU in collaboration with the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture, delivered the metal silos to the beneficiary community, perfectly in time to store the maize harvest for this year.
The silos will serve 140 families whose children are suffering from malnutrition and will retain no less than 12 quintals of maize, which is the staple food in Guatemala.
The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that farmers lose on average 30% of the post-harvest, and that the maize suffers a decline in terms of nutrients, due to diseases that strike when it is stored in poor conditions.
The use of the silos will allow each family to have good quality maize throughout the year and especially during the months before the next harvest, usually when the price increases due to less availability of the product on the market, putting pressure on the poorest families.
To ensure the success of the intervention, families were trained on the maintenance and proper use of the silos in both Spanish and in Kaqchikel, the Mayan language spoken by the inhabitants of the area.
