Author: Sergio Lopez | Major: Economics | Semester: Summer 2022

Hello, my name is Sergio Lopez, I am a Walton student of Economics, I traveled to Dangriga Belize for 2 months in order to do a research project, the mentioned project will also help me complete my honors Thesis. The research project consisted in finding the local demand of multiple vegetable products and root crops, if we could find some sort of information regarding that matter that could greatly benefit the local farmers and the local market as a whole, bringing cheaper and higher quality products to the habitants of Dangriga from local producers. The work consisted in surveying and interviewing local vendors, learning both about quantitative date of the market, but of their perspective as well, giving me a firsthand look at how the economy affects real people. After surveying and talking with most of the vegetable vendors of the village I worked in synthesizing all the information in a written report that would be given to my project leader, who works for the local ministry of agriculture. The third step of my project consisted of presenting said information to different farmers cooperatives, which meant that I visited the actual local farms in order to meet with some of them in order to present and explain to them the found results. This research project is intended to provide market knowledge to the farmers about local consumers demand. The Stann Creek district (Dangriga) has huge agricultural potential, and it is up to them to take advantage of that potential, and what this project is trying to do is to give them some knowledge to help them do that.

I believe this trip has contributed to my professional and academic life a lot, even in my personal one. It has shown me a different way of life, the most important thing to me was to see how economics and economical research can benefit the day-to-day person, how rational decisions and knowledge of the market could potentially make everyone’s life better. It has also given me real life experience in my field. I will not yet know if my research has made a difference yet, what I have done is look for the tools and the information and provide that to the farmers and to the ministry of agriculture of Dangriga, Belize and I truly hope they use the information to help the lives of the community. Personally, I think economics is one of the most important fields in the world, I think economics move the way society interacts and also the lifestyle of the people that live in that society and I believe that it is our duty to learn as much as possible about the economy in order to help in that flow, in order to help in making the lives of everyone better. As for me I want to gain that information so I can do economic research in the hopes of making the best and most functional economical system. I think there is so much about human interaction and the way the economy flows that we still don’t know, and I want to be part of the people that dedicate their lives to find that knowledge that will help in the evolution of our society.