Starting a Soil Laboratory in Guatemala

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In Guatemala, just around 5% of students have access to higher education. The Universidad de San Carlos (USAC) is the only public and autonomous university in Guatemala, and one of the first universities founded in the Americas. It has at least one education center in each department across the country, and one of them is the Centro Universitario de Noroccidente (CUNOROC).  

 

CUNOROC is located in the city of Huehuetenango and was founded in 1976. In the Huehuetenango department, it is the only public higher education institution that offers degrees in forestry, agriculture, social work, and health sciences. Currently, CUNOROC has more than 4,000 students and 110 teachers. In addition, CUNOROC provides extension and connection services for the agricultural, forestry, and social sectors of Huehuetenango. 

 

This education center had the minimum infrastructure, equipment and professors to operate a soil laboratory, but it lacked a formal business plan to make it sustainable in the long-run. To accurately estimate the economic, marketing, and procedural requirements necessary to start the lab, a F2F volunteer was requested to develop a business and marketing plan to ensure the lab’s operations were sustainable.  

 

In November 2019, Robin Brumfield, who has a Ph.D. in Horticultural Science with a minor in Economics and Business, and is a Professor and Extension Specialist in Farm Management at Rutgers University, supported CUNOROC with this assignment. 


 

The purpose of her two-week visit at CUNOROC was to provide workshops and training sessions on business planning, with an emphasis on marketing plans; and to review the business operation of the new soils laboratory, named UNILAB – CUNOROC.  Robin had several meetings with the laboratory team, where each member had the opportunity to share ideas; following university guidelines. 

 

Robin, along with the team from CUNOROC, developed a detailed plan for the operation of UNILAB - CUNOROC so that it can break even in four years and maybe by then even have revenues higher than its operating costs. The laboratory will test soils and water as well as conduct foliar analysis. The volunteer also shared PowerPoint presentations, a business-planning workbook, and several e-learning videos about business plans; all in Spanish. 

 

“I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel and work in such a beautiful country.  I have made many friends in Guatemala with kind, dedicated, and hardworking people, and I hope their country will continue to progress economically, and more tourists will discover its natural beauty and wonderful people.


I was very impressed with the insights of the teamwork and dedication of the team at San Carlos University – CUNOROC Center. They took this to heart and were very diligent about developing a budget and other parts of the plan that was realistic and met university guidelines.”



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