Blog

Six years ago, the founders of Semilla Nueva envisioned the development of sustainable systems to improve the lives of families in Guatemala through agricultural technologies. That remains our goal. Yet what does that mean – what is sustainable? The word has become diluted in the development world, tossed around to mean anything from earth-friendly to…

Read more

Jaime Quevedo from the Quetzaltenango Rotary Club volunteers with community seed distribution, May 2016 Semilla Nueva owes a great deal of its present success to Rotary. Rotary has been Semilla Nueva’s core source of support throughout the organization’s evolution, and without its generosity, the depth of Semilla Nueva’s growth in recent years would not have been possible.

Jaime Quevedo from the Quetzaltenango Rotary Club volunteers with community seed distribution, May 2016 Semilla Nueva owes a great deal of its present success to Rotary. Rotary has been Semilla Nueva’s core source of support throughout the organization’s evolution, and without its generosity, the depth of Semilla Nueva’s growth in recent years would not have been possible.

The town is called Maria del Mar. The house has no electricity, no running water. The toilet is a hole in the backyard, a wooden seat inside a wooden shack. Like almost every family on the coast, the Gramajos bathe with a bucket, so I do too, for the days I stay with them.

The town is called Maria del Mar. The house has no electricity, no running water. The toilet is a hole in the backyard, a wooden seat inside a wooden shack. Like almost every family on the coast, the Gramajos bathe with a bucket, so I do too, for the days I stay with them.

It’s a really exciting time for us here at Semilla Nueva. We’re currently in the midst of farmer field days, where we’re showing off our newest Fortaleza corn seeds. Fortaleza is our biofortified seed brand, one of our main strategies at Semilla Nueva, that competes in the market undifferentiated from other seeds.

When it comes to planting corn seeds, sometimes things don’t always go as planned. Experiencing days of drought or having pesticide problems are usually the more common issues faced; however, every once in a while mechanical problems arise and have the potential to threaten the entire planting process. This was the case in Semilla Nueva’s…

Read more

Don Jorge grew up in a corn farming family in the state of Huehutenango of Guatemala’s Western Highlands. He began farming at a young age and continues to do so now. He is the primary caregiver in a house of 17 people. Like most corn farmers in the area, Don Jorge relies on the corn…

Read more

A retired CEO of the largest food redistribution company in the United States, Pat Tracy now applies his years of supply chain expertise to combating poverty and hunger in six Central American and Caribbean countries and St. Louis, Missouri. When Pat first partnered with an organization called Food for the Poor twenty years ago, he…

Read more

A little over a year ago, when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Guatemala, the Guatemalan Government reacted swiftly, implementing mask-mandates, curfews, and travel bans, prohibiting group gatherings—and forcing Semilla Nueva to adapt its approach to both comply with these measures and respond to their devastating economic consequences. Despite these obstacles, in the…

Read more