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A Friendship Bridge client holds a handful of small red and green chili peppers, standing in a covered greenhouse.

Women's Agriculture Credit & Training

Women's Agriculture Credit & Training gives smallholder women farmers in Guatemala the financial support, technical training, and business skills to grow their harvests, raise their income, and build lasting resilience against poverty.

Friendship Bridge currently has nearly 6,500 clients in the agriculture sector. Through surveys and research, we know that 25% of our clients are financially dependent on farming. Many of these clients are subsistence farmers with low harvest yields and values. Without the tools to produce more and sell their yield, these clients are often unable to find solutions out of poverty.

To meet the unique needs of the agriculture sector, we designed the Women’s Agriculture Credit & Training program to provide smallholder women farmers with financial support, technical assistance, and entrepreneurial training. This helps them overcome challenges such as poor soil conditions, degraded lands, limited plot sizes, and restricted access to credit and agricultural inputs. Through the program, women farmers receive microloans tailored to their agricultural needs, along with capacity-building training to enhance their production, business skills, and resilience to climate change.

A Friendship Bridge client and staff member kneel together in a field, looking at a phone as part of the Agriculture program.

A Friendship Bridge client and staff member use a plant management app together in the field through the Agriculture program.

A Guatemalan farmer works in her field.

Our Goals

The Women’s Agriculture Credit & Training program has long-term goals to:

  • Bolster sustainable agriculture practices among small-scale farmers
  • Involve our clients more strategically in their family businesses
  • Raise income for rural, impoverished agrarian families
  • Create self-reliant community agriculture groups
  • Drive economic development in entire communities using Friendship Bridge’s proven lending and education model

Stories

Learn more about our clients who have benefited from our Women's Agriculture Credit & Training program.
A Friendship Bridge client stands beside a tomato field and an informational sign about tomato cultivation methods.

Candelaria: Sowing Seeds of Change

Candelaria, with help from our Women’s Agriculture & Training program, learns sustainable farming and shares how her knowledge is already changing her community.

Eusebia, a Friendship Bridge Agriculture program client, stands behind a crate of fresh lettuce, surrounded by stacks of colorful plastic crates.

Eusebia: A Force in the Fields

With a loan and guidance from our Women’s Agriculture Credit & Training program, Eusebia has learned that with determination and opportunity, anything is possible.

A Friendship Bridge client stands in a cornfield, leaning on a wooden tool.

Catarina: Harvesting Opportunity

After the passing of her husband, Catarina faced one of the most difficult chapters of her journey. However, Friendship Bridge supported her with technical training to keep her family’s farm thriving.