ABSTRACT
Earlier this year I crossed a river in Nicaragua which I have crossed so many times before during the last ten years. There are a few houses at each side of the river and obviously people living in these houses collect water in the river to water their crops and their animals. A few years back, a couple who had lived and worked in the rapidly growing town of Estelí, 40 minutes’ drive from the river crossing, decided to retire and to renovate their house along the river. They installed a water tank and a pumping system to fill the tank. They use the water from the tank to water a small plantation of avocado trees and also crops of tomatoes and other vegetables grown for sale in Estelí. This time when I crossed, I counted several new pumps. In at least two cases, the owners of the pumps were what I would consider ‘agricultural entrepreneurs’ rather than farmers. They were business people living in Estelí who had rented a piece of land along the river, prepared the plot, laid out their pipes and installed their pumps along the river bank to pump out water to water crops of tomatoes and green peppers. If everything goes well, they may rent the land for another year; if not, they are likely to move their equipment to another location.
