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Ruinous monocultures

August 25, 2015

While the rise of soya monocultures is changing the face of rural Paraguay, small-scale farmers are fighting back with traditional and environmentally friendly agriculture.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GL2F
Golden field in Paraguay
Image: Katja Döhne

Small-scale farmers against soya monocultures

Project goal: to support small-scale farmers in Paraguay to protect their own land and the biodiversity around them
Project implementation: The Global Forest Coalition (GFC) NGO offers cultivation advice and holds workshops for the development of long-term strategies
Project size: GFC is currently active in three communities, two are groups of small-scale farmers in the east of the country, and one is an indigenous population in the north

Ever more small-scale farmers in Paraguay are giving up their traditional way of life and selling their land - sometimes on the back of false promises - to international farming corporations who clear it to create space for sprawling soya monocultures. Indigenous farmers often end up in extreme poverty with neither land nor work to their name. These vast farms are bad news for the environment too, but efforts are underway to help local people keep their land and livelihoods.

A film by Katja Döhne