Twelve Bio-Input Production Centers Are Inaugurated In The La Paz-Oruro Double-Line Highway

(La Paz, March 18^th, 2014).- In the framework of the PASOS program for inclusion, the Inclusive Double-Lane  project is being executed. This is an initiative developed by CAF , Development Bank of Latin America, jointly with the SNV (Netherlands Development Organization) and other cooperation entities. Milk producers in the Oruro communities Realenga and Khasa Huasa, started the 12 centers for the production of bio-inputs to improve livestock food and therefore, the quantity an quality of cow milk.

The objective of the PASOS for inclusion program is to support credit operations when opportunities for social empowerment and productivity improvements are detected in vulnerable populations through strengthening of capacities and talents, ensuring that those who participate become agents of their own development.   

The objective of the PASOS program for inclusion is to support CAF's credit operations with interventions that improve the quality of life of the populations and communities that are close to these operations, either through improvements in the productive capacities, or facilitating access to health and potable water services, among others.

CAF's financing for the La Paz-Oruro highway is complemented by the Inclusive Double-Lane Project, whose objective is to dynamize the economy of the neighboring communities through a model of inclusive and socially profitable businesses. The bio-inputs or biological inputs are products prepared from organic material which, among other uses, serve to improve the food used to feed cattle.

The centers delivered for the production of bio-inputs are equipped with tools for milking, and tubular bio-digesters, hermetically closed plastic tanks where the anaerobic fermentation of the cattle's manure occurs (without oxygen), until biogas and biol are obtained. All of this is supported by an implemented management model.

Complementing this provision, the producers have received technical and entrepreneurial training in subjects related to entrepreneurship, labor aspects, administration, management of the milk farm, production quality, management of bio-digesters, and use of natural organic fertilizer, or biol.

Thus, the community members associated in 12 productive units will increase the production of milk and their incomes by preparing and using bio-inputs in milking and feeding activities, significantly improving the cattle's food, and the quality and quantity of the product.

For the first time, it is possible to successfully coordinate a technology such as bio-digesters with a productive use in the milking field, in addition to significantly improving the quality of life of the families by promoting the collection and use of manure, which would otherwise remain on the floor of their small farms, contaminating, emanating green house gases, and putting the health of children and adults at risk.

In the inauguration ceremony of the centers, 32 producers received certificates for their Proven Labor Competence (accredited by the Universidad Mayor de San Andres - UMSA), in Management of Bio-Digesters to improve productivity in the milk chain.

Last November, an automatic oven was delivered to the Departmental Federation of Milk Producers of La Paz (Fedelpaz, for its acronym in Spanish) to dry barley malt dregs, resulting in the first positive results of the project. Sixty-four milk producers from La Paz received training to improve their product and comply with the quality standards demanded by purchasing companies, while twenty-five community leaders were trained to create and consolidate enterprises linked to the milk productive chain, obtaining a certification as Entrepreneurial Managers for the Transformation and Provision of Balanced Foods.

In addition, in the framework of the project, the following were provided: materials for the construction of storage silos for three communities in Umala and Patacamaya; materials for the construction of milk storage centers; family silos for the storage of quinoa and canahua for the communities of Ventilla and Pongo (Oruro) and Vilaque (La Paz); farming, harvesting, and post-harvesting tools.

Inclusive Double-Lane Highway

The Inclusive Double-Lane Highway Project expects the improvement of the productive capacity and incomes of close to 600 families, and provides labor training to more than 220 producers that live in the area of influence of this highway with a length of more than 200 kilometers, so that they may become suppliers or reliable participants in the production chain of established enterprises.

The inclusive businesses that are being developed are a boost for milk suppliers; development of sweet quinoa suppliers; support for suppliers of canahua and quinoa for nutraceutical compounds (nutritional supplement for low-income children and adults); improvement in the value chain of the potato (potato seed and final product), and development of bio-inputs with renewable energy.

The project is supported by CAF, SNV, the Inter-Church Cooperative for Development Cooperation (ICCO), the Avina Foundation, the UNDP's ART GOLD program, and the non-governmental organization HIVOS, for this specific component.