Regmaíz Hurricane Otis Relief Fund

Saludos,

My name is Steve Larson and I am raising food sovereignty relief funds for the Regmaíz rural community located in the Coyuca de Benítez region of Guerrero. Last December I had the opportunity to visit this community to learn more about corn and milpa farming. Below is a picture of a small sample we harvested of the 9 native corn varieties and other milpa crops being stewarded on this mountainside. They had an abundant harvest last season but this year the hurricane brought about an abrupt change.

For those unaware, on Tuesday, October 24th, Hurricane Otis was just a tropical storm headed for the coast of Guerrero, near the Acapulco/Coyuca de Benítez region. Within 12 hours it became a category 5 Hurricane, leaving everyone no time to prepare for the 165 mph winds and immense rains to follow. It is said to be the strongest hurricane on record to hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast. For more details on the general hurricane damage click here for further reading.

It has taken almost 1 month for electricity to return to certain communities and many still do not have access to water. A lot of the relief funds coming into the area are focused on the urban centers and estimated damages are mainly focused on infrastructure.

We are raising funds to help Regmaíz communities whose livelihood and sustenance comes from traditional milpa farming, of which their crop damage has not been fully taken into account.

The Network of Campesino Guardians of Native Maize (Regmaíz) is a network of campesino farmers working for the defense of native and landrace seeds, for the strengthening of campesino family agriculture and for the eradication of agricultural chemicals.

Corn or maíz is the foundation of the local diet as well as the main crop within the milpa farming system. Traditional campesino communities grow the majority of the corn and other food crops they need to feed their families while selling any surplus. These are ancestral, landrace seeds that have been stewarded in Costa Grande for time immemorial. They are not seeds that one buys from a seed catalog if a crop failure comes. Extreme care is taken to ensure these seeds continue to feed their families well into the future.

The hurricane came when many native corn crops had not matured enough to be harvested and dried for future seeds and staple foods like tortillas. In some areas it's estimated that where a harvest of 3 to 4 tons per hectare is normal, maybe 500 kilos will be harvested. In other areas, it will be a total loss.

This impacts many aspects of the campesino livelihood with these 2 being highlighted in this campaign:

1) As stored food supplies dwindle, they will not be replaced by the new harvest because of crop failures. This will impact the amount of food available within the community in the coming months.

2) Seed stock will not be increased for future plantings making family and community seed stocks more vulnerable to potential climatic disasters.

Any funds received through this campaign will go to Regmaíz to help address these two points mentioned above via the following two initiatives:

1) Create a community food fund by purchasing mainly bulk corn, rice and beans from the surrounding states to distribute through their network of families.

2) Acquire irrigation supplies to plant crops in January, to increase seed and food supplies. This is a time when crops are not planted unless water can be provided to them during the dry season.

They would like to share that any funds they received would be used to further their communities ability to provide for itself. Climate change is making weather more unpredictable and bringing about a time where locally adapted crops are more important than ever.