The Mesoamerican Development Institute is a nongovernmental organization with offices in Massachusetts, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. We work on removing barriers to moving producer organizations up the value-added chain in agro-industrial processing, and in reducing production costs through the use of renewable energy sources in rural Mesoamerica.

In practical terms, this entails creating the conditions in which new tools can be adopted by rural enterprises that allow them to participate in agro-industrial processing and the export of agricultural products. Such examples include:

* The introduction of industrial solar coffee dryers that allow producers to reduce processing costs and improve quality while protecting the environment.
* The introduction of processing equipment for the extraction of essential oils of forest products that functions off grid using bio-fuels to power the industrial process.
* The introduction of hermetic storage systems that allow cooperatives to create storage businesses for storing grains and commodities. These tools preserve quality and eliminate the need for pesticides and fumigants.