Abstract:

The perplexing issue after visits with Cacao cooperatives in Nicaragua was why all of the internal migration of the young people. Why were they leaving their homes, their education and migrating to other locations in Nicaragua? The young and mature leaders spoke of this problem.

Cacao, with its approximately 10,000 growers, is an important industry in this country of 7 million people. Nicaragua is the 25th largest producer and is known for its high-quality cacao. Much of the crop is organic, and most of it is grown by independent producers. This makes it unusual in the world of cacao and helps to command a high price in the world markets. Co-creamos, an integrated government and university program to improve the creative economy and small producers such as those of cacao is seeking to help farmers and cooperatives to be more successful. Co-creamos is about lifelong learning and helping people obtain modern tools of education. Most of the production is brought to market by the 50 to 60 cooperatives. They represent the largest share of the cacao farmers. In addition to the small landholders and the cooperatives there are some cacao plantations.

In the empathy part of the work the author was privileged to visit 8 major cooperatives, and two processing cooperatives. with cacao in October 23 and February 24. A cooperative will typically produce cacao and other crops as well. In these visits we were able to learn a lot of things about the cacao cooperatives. How they felt responsible for members who lived on small farms, were aging, or faced the most serious threats of climate change. Sustainable or organic practices sometimes made the crop smaller. How they are planning for the forecasted climate change. The kinds of research they were doing on trees. The processors were fascinating as well how they fermented, dried, sorted, and maintained the purity of the product. With all this interesting and caring work why are the young people immigrating? That was the question on the minds of the authors in designing the work shop for May 24.

The chance to learn more came at the workshop for Cacao cooperatives, farmers, and those artisans who transform the cacao into chocolate. There were many different cooperatives present at the workshop as well as other engaged in the cacao industry in Nicaragua. In this paper the processes used to explore the issue of youth imigration and the results generated are explained. It became clear as the authors facilitated the sessions that there were many educational and social justice issues that need attention at various levels from family all the way up to the larger cooperatives. In the discussions many possible ideas were suggested to the leaders of what might be done by other leaders. The authors tried to maintain their role of facilitators and therefore did not contribute.

Keywords:

Cooperatives, Cacao, internal immigration, Education, Social Justice, Nicaragua.