Most of Tololar’s economy is agricultural, and Tololar’s farmers are facing a daunting future.
Climate change is changing the weather dramatically. Tololar is becoming hotter & drier, and rain-dependent crops are failing with greater frequency.
Predatory pricing is ravaging an already-poor country. Crop buyers capitalize on farmers’ short harvest windows and buy crops at below break-even prices.
Soil degradation, caused largely by relentless peanut cropping, is increasing farmers’ dependence on chemicals and further stretching their limited resources.
Drip irrigation addresses these problems by giving farmers an efficient and sustainable means for regaining control over their harvests.
Drip systems:
Enable dry-season cropping, which is normally a time of limited work and scarce production.
Allow farmers to control their harvest time, and sell their produce at much better prices.
Require far less pesticide, since most pests are dormant during the dry season.
Most families in Tololar have the prerequisites for a drip system (a good well and accessible land), but cannot afford a system on their own. Tololamos helps candidate families build drip systems by providing the equipment, expertise and installation costs as a long-term, subsidized loan. The family repays approximately half of the $2400 cost over 5 years, and those funds and their experience are then used to support another family’s drip system.