Colombia coffee growers to receive $163,000 to plant corn as an income alternative

  The Colombian Coffee Growers Federations (FNC) announced at the end of October a program that will encourage coffee growers to plan corn in between young coffee plants as an income alternative. The program, titled “Café y Maíz, un Matrimonio Feliz” (Coffee and Corn a Happy Marriage) is being executed jointly by the Colombian Government and the Colombian coffee Growers Federation. The Minister of Agriculture, Juan C. Restrepo, and the Manager of National Federation of Cereal Growers (Fenalce¬), Henry Vanegas, announced the budgetary and technical strengthening of this initiative, which will see the delivery of over US$163,000 to Colombian coffee growers, the equivalent of around 45 tons of corn seends. The corn will serve as an alternative for diversification in Colombia´s coffee regions, when corn grows in between newly renovated coffee trees. As the FNC is targeted to stump, or news plant, around 130,000 hectares in 2011, farmers will be in need of an alternative source of income.