VENEZUELA:
Co-operatives Turn Idle
Landed Estates Green
By Humberto Márquez*
BARINAS, Venezuela
(Tierramérica) - "As far
as you can see, there
was not one litre of
milk produced, not even
an ear of corn," says
José Tapia Coirán,
turning with his arms
outstretched, pointing
to the horizon of the
Venezuelan savannah
dotted by trees. "Now we
produce 500 litres of
milk per day and we
harvested one million
kilos of maize."
He is referring to the
achievements of the
Brisas del Masparro
co-operative, set in the
plains of Barinas, in
southwest Venezuela.
Coirán, as he is known
by everyone, is a former
day labourer and tractor
driver for large farms
in the area, and is now
the co-operative's
president.
"Once there was a forest
here, but the large
estate owners took all
the lumber. They left a
few trees and thousands
of hectares of stubble
that we are cleaning up
little by little and
planting with forage
grass and maize," says
Coirán, adding "they had
abandoned this, left it
lying fallow, and that
is why we took it over."
He and his fellow
co-operative members
show this reporter vast
stretches of plains that
are as flat as a
billiard table amidst
weeds, a marsh here and
there, pastures and
fields being ploughed
for planting,
underscoring the
co-operative’s
explanation that what
they had occupied was
unproductive land.
We come across flocks of
herons, scarlet ibis,
and some flickers. "We
want to conserve all
that we can. We decided
not to take down any
trees, but rather get
rid of weeds and pests
as we progress," says
Miguel Méndez, another
co-operative member.
President Hugo Chávez
launched a "war" against
large estates with a
2001 land act that laid
the groundwork for a
government "recovery" of
rural land whose private
ownership and
productivity could not
be proved. There
continue to be clashes
over land between large
landowners and small
farmers.
In 1999, large rural
estates covered six
million hectares in
Venezuela. Two million
hectares have been
confiscated by the
government, which handed
over 60 percent of that
to more than 100,000
rural families,
according to official
figures.
Furthermore, 98,500
farms that cover 4.3
million hectares have
been regularised through
the agrarian charter,
which grants possession,
but not ownership, of
the land, which belongs
to the government.
The Santa Rita
"hacienda", or rural
estate, on the banks of
the Masparro river,
extends across 31,000
hectares but has no more
than 1,800 head of
cattle, according to the
co-operative. Peasant
groups occupied it in
2002 and 2003, and the
government assigned them
some 16,000 hectares,
leaving the rest to the
former owners.
The co-operative that
has made the most
progress is Brisas del
Masparro, with 56
members on 803 hectares.
Five years ago they
received a loan of
156,000 dollars that was
invested in cattle,
horses, equipment and
inputs, and in the first
crops.
They now have a
double-purpose herd, for
meat and milk, based on
crosses between Cebú and
Holstein breeds
acclimated to the
tropical plains.
COMMON PROPERTY
A large house once used
as a bunkhouse for
labourers and as a
storage facility by the
former estate has been
turned into a community
centre. The first
impression is one of
disorder. A pile of
tractor parts in the
yard marks the only
point in the area where
there is a signal for
the satellite phone.
Pigs and chickens follow
a young man as he rubs
the kernels off corn
cobs. Another man cleans
the floor of the
corridor, which is also
the site of co-operative
assemblies. It has been
a while since the walls
have received a fresh
coat of paint.
In the back are a
kitchen and a large
dining table for those
who are working on a
given day and the
families that have
settled in improvised
homes in the surrounding
area. On one wall there
are faded posters of
Chávez and of the
Salvadoran revolutionary
Farabundo Martí
(1893-1932).
"We are socialists. We
work as a community,
according to the
abilities of each, and
we take turns so that we
aren't always doing the
same thing, and to learn
about everything. We
realised that if we were
each on our own it would
be very difficult to get
ahead and leave behind
our days as labourers,
as employees enriching
someone else," says
Neptalí Quintana, who
for many years worked in
artificial insemination
of cows on the region's
large ranches.
He is leaning against a
fence of the dairy,
where children are
milking cows for the
second time today. "We
get about five litres of
milk per animal per day
-- above the average" in
the area, which is less
than four litres per
cow, says Quintana.
Every day, the
co-operative donates 20
litres of milk to the
two small schools
nearby. "We provide the
cup of milk that each
child needs," says
Méndez proudly.
"But if in addition to
communally owned animals
one of us has a cow or a
horse, or gets a pig, it
can be raised with the
others and sold by the
individual owner. Some
portion will be given to
the co-operative, but we
don't oppose that sort
of ownership. What we do
want is the land and
other life-sustaining
projects," says Coirán.
The income "is used for
the expenses that are
also shared, for
production or for food,
and each member receives
an additional 400
bolívares (186 dollars)
per month as an advance
of what would be due for
their role in managing
the co-operative at the
end of the year,"
explains Iraima
Benaventa, a young
mother of two who is in
charge of logistics.
Benaventa, who is taking
part in a
secondary-level distance
learning programme,
records the purchases
that another member has
brought from the city --
pasta, rice, cattle
vaccines -- and
supervises the younger
members in clean-up and
kitchen activities. The
meal today is rice and
beef.
Brisas del Masparro will
begin construction this
year of housing units
for 56 families, with a
self-construction plan
backed by the
government. "We will
build them together in
the style of a little
town in order to
facilitate and reduce
costs of services like
water, electricity and
gas, with a sports
field, a town square and
a community centre, and
perhaps even a pool,"
says one member.
BETTER COMMUNITY
Las Piedras, one corner
of the Masparro
co-operative, is an
hour's drive from
Barinas, the regional
capital, passing by
Sabaneta, President
Chávez's birthplace.
Then comes another hour
of driving over open
land and gravel that the
co-operative members are
requesting to be paved
in benefit of the entire
community.
"The farms in this
sector were very
unproductive five years
ago. But with our
efforts, the government
programmes arrived. The
road was opened up, a
land plan was begun,
possession papers were
given to individual
farmers or co-operativists,
and credits were
granted," says Coirán.
In Las Piedras "we went
from nearly zero to
21,000 litres of milk
per day (national output
is 1.3 to 1.7 million
litres daily, according
to different sources).
Now there are people
raising more cattle,
planting maize, fruit
trees and pastures,"
says the co-op
president.
Caracciolo Ramírez, an
independent farmer, has
around 40 hectares near
the co-operative’s land.
"The government has
helped with agrarian
charters, with some
financing, and with the
road. I will do some
home improvements, my
oldest daughter began
university -- I am
seeing the results,"
says Ramírez, offering
this reporter a cool oat
drink with ice under the
porch roof at his brick
home.
Meanwhile, the
co-operative is
preparing a larger area
than last year to plant
maize, building a new
cow barn and
refurbishing the old one
for mechanised milking,
and seeking financing to
install some cooling
tanks that will help
them benefit more from
each litre of milk.
"All around the world
there is a food crisis.
They want to take food
and make it into fuel.
We don't agree with that
and we pay back the
government's support by
producing more food.
This country can't
continue feeding the
people based on imports
when there is so much
land waiting to be
worked," says Coirán.
In the 2004-2007 period,
Venezuela's food
production grew 3.4
percent, from 18.9 to
19.6 tonnes annually,
according to government
figures.
But former agriculture
minister Hiram Gaviria
points to how much is
still lacking: in per
capita terms, Venezuela
today produces 88
percent of the food it
generated in 1998, he
told Tierramérica.
A long way from Barinas,
across the Atlantic in
Rome, world leaders
gathered Jun. 3-5 at the
United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) summit to debate
ways to overcome the
current food crisis.
At the former Santa Rita
hacienda, thousands of
hectares "recovered" by
the government were
handed over to other
co-operatives or small
farmers' associations
that have not had the
same success as Brisas
del Masparro.
"We hold assemblies for
the zone and we offer
support. Even farther
away, to Apure (in the
country's far southwest)
we have taken our
experience and the young
milk cows we have
produced, which we sell
them at low prices, but
the individualism of
many people means that
what they are looking
for is their own land,"
says Coirán.
Back in Barinas, one
such individual,
Alejandro, accompanies
Tierramérica through the
countryside. "We want to
form a co-operative to
work, but each one has
his parcel of land that
is free to be sold. With
the agrarian charter,
the land can't be
transferred and will
always belong to the
government."
But Alejandro says that
the neighbours of Brisas
del Masparro are
sympathetic to the
experiment of the
co-operative, and would
like to take it as
testimony of what can be
achieved when working
together.
"They have their
reasons, the support of
the revolutionary
government, and that's
good, but what will
happen tomorrow if the
government changes? One
wants a piece of land to
work, but also to leave
to one's children," he
says, as the orange sun
sets over the plains of
southwest Venezuela.
(*Humberto Márquez is an
IPS correspondent.
Originally published by
Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme,
United Nations
Environment Programme
and the World Bank.) |
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