Olga Martinez

Pioneered sustainable agriculture in Latin America through her zero-waste farming system

Olga Martinez (1912-1975) was a Guatemalan agronomist whose 1940s Olga System transformed farming practices across Central America. Growing up in a coffee-growing family, she witnessed the environmental devastation caused by monoculture plantations. Her innovation combined Indigenous Mayan farming knowledge with modern techniques, creating a polyculture system that integrated coffee, corn, beans, and fruit trees in mutually beneficial arrangements. The system's key feature was a closed-loop water management approach using gravity-fed irrigation channels that reduced water use by 60% while increasing crop yields by 40%. Her 1953 book Sowing Abundance became required reading at agricultural schools, and her methods were adopted by over 10,000 smallholder farms by 1960. Despite facing gender discrimination, she established the Fundación Olga in 1965 to train women farmers. Her legacy is celebrated in the 2019 documentary Roots of Renewal, which highlights how her principles anticipate modern permaculture practices. The United Nations still uses her water management designs in drought-prone regions today.