CUBA:
Economic Independence
for Rural Women
By Dalia Acosta
SAN ANDRÉS, Cuba (IPS) -
María Valido has stopped
thinking of herself as a
simple farmer devoted to
traditional household
chores since becoming
involved in an
agricultural innovation
programme that has
changed the lives of
hundreds of families in
rural regions of Cuba
since 2000.
The Local Agricultural
Innovation Programme (PIAL),
initially led by a
multidisciplinary
scientific team from the
National Institute of
Agricultural Sciences
(INCA), is aimed at
revitalising the
agricultural sector and
promoting greater
participation by
campesino (small farmer)
communities in Cuba’s
food production
policies.
"In the past we had no
motivation," Valido, 47,
told IPS. "Now we get up
in the morning eager to
do things to show
others, to participate
in exchanges with other
producers."
The arrival of the INCA
experts came as
something as a surprise
to Valido and her
husband, Agustín
Pimentel, who have a
small farm in San Andrés,
located in a valley
surrounded by
flat-topped hills known
as mogotes in the
province of Pinar del
Río, 125 kilometres west
of Havana.
"At first it all seemed
kind of strange to us,
but then we started to
innovate with the seeds
they brought us, and it
turned into something
really serious," said
Valido. The initial
experiments culminated
in a project for the
development of locally
produced animal feed,
through the promotion of
different varieties of
cowpeas, soybeans, corn
and sorghum.
By producing their own
feed for raising pigs,
Valido and her husband
have increased their
household income, and no
longer depend on state
supplies of animal feed.
Improved techniques for
soil preservation and
the introduction of
different varieties of
root and garden
vegetables have also
brought economic
benefits.
Exchanging experiences
with other participants
in the programme
motivated Valido to
start up her own garden
and to begin preparing
homemade preserves with
foods like tomatoes,
mangos and citrus
fruits, for the family’s
own use.
"Women who join up can
improve their economic
independence, because
they don’t have to
depend on the market,"
said Valido. "Now I only
buy what I can’t produce
here, and it’s much
healthier because I do
everything without
chemicals."
San Andrés has a total
population of over 3,500
inhabitants. Some are
grouped together in
small hamlets, while the
others are scattered
among roughly 200
remote, isolated houses,
a quarter of which do
not have electricity.
The main activity is
subsistence agriculture
on land degraded by
improper farming
practices, shortages of
water and the local
conditions.
The possibility of
selling preserves and
condiments as a new
source of income is what
inspires 42-year-old
Zoila Plasencia, another
campesina from San
Andrés. "I think that
when production
increases and there’s a
place to sell our
products, it will really
benefit the women here
and the community in
general," she commented
to IPS.
Plasencia is recognised
as an active promoter of
the production of home
preserves and condiments
for local consumption.
Her ideas could be
materialised as a
small-scale agribusiness
operation that would
offer new sources of
employment to young
people and women.
"In this community,
there are very limited
opportunities for paid
work for women, who
mainly devote themselves
to household chores,"
commented Ania Yong, an
INCA expert and
coordinator of the
second Local Agrarian
Innovation Festival,
held in San Andrés in
December 2007.
Yong came to this region
with the goal of
promoting the
cultivation of
ornamental plants and
fruit trees, but instead
she discovered a strong
demand for training in
the production of
preserves and
condiments.
"Given the potential for
saving money and the
health benefits, this
initiative has been
embraced by the women
here, who can now
produce what they need
and in some cases even
sell what they produce,"
noted Yong, who also
emphasised the
programme’s significant
impact on the
self-esteem of rural
women.
Roughly 47 percent of
rural dwellers in Cuba
are women, and rural
women make up just over
11 percent of the
country’s total
population of 11.2
million.
Since its founding in
2000, the PIAL
initiative has expanded
to nine of Cuba’s 14
provinces, with support
from universities,
research institutes,
Cuban and international
non-governmental
organisations,
development aid
agencies, and government
authorities from the
agricultural and
environmental sectors.
The programme
encompasses five main
areas: training and
communication, research,
animal husbandry, seed
diversification, and
integrated agricultural
management, with the
incorporation of a
gender perspective in
all five areas.
"The idea is to give
women the opportunity to
participate in each one
of the thematic areas,
to provide them with
access, control and use
of the programme’s
resources, while closely
monitoring how they
benefit from the
programme," said Nénsida
Permuy, who is
responsible for ensuring
a gender focus within
the PIAL initiative in
the province of Holguín,
located some 690
kilometres east of
Havana.
Permuy and the rest of
the team at the Local
Agricultural Innovation
Centre in Holguín
initiated their work in
the rural community of
Las Caobas, where "women
fulfil their
reproductive role in the
home, while the men go
out into the fields and
bring in the money," she
told IPS.
"We try to promote
balance in communities,
so that women are not
economically dependent
on men," explained
Permuy, who recognised
the difficulty of
incorporating a gender
perspective, even among
professionals, because
"machismo is so
ingrained in all of us."
While Permuy
acknowledged that there
have been no major
changes yet, she
stressed that more and
more women are joining
agricultural
cooperatives, while
others are pursuing
further studies or
venturing into new
activities to increase
their contribution to
family incomes.
"I have faith in the
community and I’m
confident that we are
going to achieve a
change in mentality --
the most difficult
change of all," she
declared. ( |
