As part of a strategy to find new markets for the food produced in the Alternative Rural Schools (ERA), members of the ERA in Miranda began to participate in the Encuentro Campesino organized by the Cali Secretariat of Economic Development. The Encuentros Campesinos are markets where rural producers offer environmentally sustainable products to small traders as well as individual consumers. Thanks to the alliance between PASO Colombia and Harvest Plus , ERA participants in Miranda are selling biofortified beans. The beans were grown from seeds donated by Harvest Plus and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). These beans are of a particular variety that has been biofortified, through traditional pollination breeding, to increase levels of micronutrients such as iron and zinc. High levels of essential nutrients contribute to improving consumer nutrition and food security throughout the region.
