Wednesday 21 January
2009, San José, Costa
Rica
CUBA:
Women Farmers Bring
Innovation to the
Mountains
By Patricia Grogg
SAN JOSÉ DE LAS LAJAS,
Cuba (IPS) - When
Odaly Aroche set out
from the mountains of
Topes de Collantes in
central Cuba to see what
other women farmers were
doing in San Andrés, 380
km west of her home, her
neighbours told her she
was crazy. But that
didn’t stop her.
More than a year after
her first trip, Aroche
has become a leader in
her community, where she
has won admiration for
her innovative ideas
that have helped improve
economic and
environmental conditions
in this rural area,
which has thrown itself
open to new farming
techniques.
Aroche joined the Local
Agricultural Innovation
Programme (PIAL) as part
of a potato growing
project proposed by
experts with the
National Institute of
Agricultural Sciences
(INCA).
"I accepted even though
my husband didn’t
support me in it,"
Aroche, 42, told IPS.
"He told me it would be
hard, but we planted 42
kinds of potato and then
held a ‘diversity fair’
at my house, where the
farmers selected the
ones they liked."
PIAL was launched by
INCA in 2000, with the
stated aim of
"strengthening a system
of agricultural
innovation that
recognises and
incorporates the
contribution and
capacity of farmers in
the generation of
economic, social and
environmental benefits
for society, which
promote agrodiversity as
a strategy in favour of
food security and
sovereignty in the Cuban
context."
So far, the programme
has benefited 50,000
people in nine of Cuba’s
14 provinces. In each
case, it works through
the Local Centres for
Agricultural Innovation
(CLIA), which make up
networks of local actors
interested in innovative
techniques, of which
farmers form the core.
After taking a course
organised by PIAL,
Aroche presented a
project on soil
conservation, because
the soil in Topes de
Collantes "is highly
degraded." The
initiative won a
micro-loan, which
provided her with a
minimal level of
financing that allowed
her to draw other people
into her project, to
carry out efforts
against erosion on farms
in the region.
According to Soil
Institute statistics,
nearly half of the
topsoil in Cuba is of
low fertility. Farmland
in the country is
affected by erosion,
poor drainage, low
moisture retention, and
scarce content of
organic matter.
"Now we’re working on
the preservation of
vegetables, based on
what I learned with
Zoyla and María," said
Aroche, who convinced
several local farmers of
the usefulness of
growing vegetables other
than the traditionally
grown tomato, with the
promise of bringing them
a specialist in canning
and preserving
techniques.
Zoyla Placencia and
María Valido, two
farmers from San Andrés,
were the pioneers in
getting women involved
in PIAL, in line with
the gender perspective
aspect incorporated into
each of the five prongs
of its working programme:
training and
communication, research,
livestock production,
diversification of seeds
and integrated
agricultural management.
"For me, the project was
an awakening," said
Placencia at one of the
sessions of the second
PIAL national meeting,
held Jan. 13-15. The
42-year-old Placencia is
now president of a
Credit and Services
Cooperative made up of
48 men and just two
women.
"A movement for the
participation of women
has to be generated,"
Graciela Morales,
national programme
officer of the Swiss
Agency for Development
and Cooperation (SDC),
said at one of the
debates during the
meeting.
Morales said female
leadership should not be
cast merely as a PIAL
gender equality
achievement, and called
instead for a broader
change in the model of
the rural family.
Rural women represent
more that 11 percent of
Cuba’s 11.2 million
people. At the national
level, women make up 52
percent of the workforce
and constitute 65
percent of the country’s
technicians and
professionals.
"The local farmers now
believe I have brought
them good ideas, and
they even elected me to
present the next project
for a micro-loan," said
Aroche. "The women
farmers say they will
join in the preservation
of food, because it will
improve their lives."
In its current phase,
PIAL has the support of
the SDC and Deutsche
Welthungerhilfe/German
Agro Action, one of
Germany’s largest
development and
humanitarian aid
organisations. It has
also received backing
from universities,
research institutes,
Cuban and international
non-governmental
organisations,
development aid agencies
and agricultural and
environmental
authorities.
"We thought farming was
just for men, but that’s
a myth," said PIAL
director Humberto Ríos.
"Women are the ones who
are most interested in
innovation; it would be
unfair not to give them
a leading role," he said
at PIAL’s national
meeting.
"If PIAL does not work
with local families, it
cannot sustain itself,"
said Ríos, 46, who wants
to expand the idea of
"innovative families."
In just a few years,
PIAL has achieved
significant results in
the areas where it is
active.
Exponential growth in
agricultural yields, the
diversification of crops
and the use of organic
fertilisers are all
recent achievements in
agriculture, which is in
urgent need of
increasing production.
In 2008, Cuba spent 839
million dollars more on
food imports than in
2007, according to the
Economy Ministry.
Agriculture, which was
devastated by three
hurricanes in August and
September, grew just 1.6
percent last year, far
below the 18.8 percent
growth achieved in 2007.
At her house in the
hills of Topes de
Collantes, Aroche is
planning her next
project: raising a local
breed of chickens. She
already knows who to buy
the eggs from, and has
persuaded local farmers
to come on board.
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