Some 2,000 families in poor rural areas of Honduras will take part in pilot initiatives in ecotourism, sustainable agriculture and local marketing of their products thanks to 6.8 million dollars in financing from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The two-year pilot projects will include training of the participating families in techniques for organic farming of coffee and other crops and the sale of their products in local markets.

The initiatives will be carried out in the departments of Colón and Gracias a Dios, on the Atlantic coast, the northeastern department of Olancho, and the southern Honduran region of El Paraíso, Mario Pineda of the National Sustainable Rural Development Program at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock told Tierramérica.