SosteNica is a nonprofit development fund that promotes sustainable economic, human, and community development in Nicaragua. With support from PCG and other investors, SosteNica began the Sustainable Rural Development Program (SRDP), a micro-loan and agricultural training program serving the region of Nagarote. Sostenica’s goal is to impart skills, knowledge, and capital to hundreds of family farmers, which will in turn impact the lives of many thousands of Nicaraguans. SRDP promotes soil conservation, reforestation, food security, water harvesting, and organic farming methods. In addition to offering micro-loans for specific farm improvements, the program gives work shops and on-farm technical assistance to farmers. In kind loans of plantain and banana corms (seed) promote diversification of production as well as improving family diets, with forage going to feed livestock. Farmers who “borrow” plantain seed repay the loans by harvesting surplus seed and paying it forward to neighbors and other farmers in the program.