ACRIONA AND ORIZONA, BRAZIL – A bakery that produces fruit pulp and water pumped from springs is empowering rural women in the state of Goiás in central-eastern Brazil. New renewable energy sources are driving this process.
“We work in the shadows and have a safe and stable income, not an uncertain income like that of agriculture. We do not control milk prices,” said Led Aparecida Souza, who runs a bakery in the rural district of Acreona, a municipality of 21,500 people located in central Goiás. Nor in cases of drought or pests in crops.”
The bakery offers a variety of breads, as well as cheeses or sausages, as well as pastries, cakes and biscuits to about 3,000 students in the municipal school network, for the state school feeding programme, in which family farming guarantees at least 30% of your purchases. Social welfare institutions are another destination.
“The network is the link between the value of rural women, family farming and the energy transition. “We choose family farming because it produces healthy food”: Gisian Ribeiro.
It is an initiative by the women of the Guinebabo settlement, and was implemented in 1999 with the participation of 27 families, within the framework of the permanent agrarian reform taking place in Brazil after the military dictatorship (1964-1985), which has already settled 1.3 million families. .
Genipapo, the name chosen for the settlement, is an outgrowth of the cerrado, the savannah that dominates a large central region of Brazil. Each settled family received 44 hectares, and local production is concentrated in soybeans, cassava and its flour, maize, dairy and poultry farms.
Bakeries empower rural women
The women of the Jinbabu Settlement Residents’ Association decided to establish the bakery as a new source of income 16 years ago. They also gained self-esteem and independence by earning “their own money.” Husbands generally control agricultural and livestock income.
Each worker earns about 1,500 riyals ($300) per month, which is 6% more than the national minimum wage. “We started with 21 participants, and now we have 14 available to work, because some have moved on or given up,” Souza explained.
A year ago, the project received a solar energy system with six photovoltaic panels from the Earth Women Energy Project, promoted by Gepaaf Rural Consulting, with support from the Social and Environmental Fund of the Federal Economic Fund, the regional bank focused on social development. region and from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), which is also state-run.
Gepaaf is an abbreviation for Project Management and Preparation Consulting in Family Farming and has its origins in a study group at UFG. The company’s headquarters are in Inhuamas, a city of 52,000 located 180 kilometers from Acriona.
Due to difficulties with the inverter, a device necessary to connect the generator to the electricity distribution network, the station did not begin operating until March. Now we will see if the savings add up to the approximately 300 riyals ($60) that the bakery costs with electricity.
“It’s a small amount, but every penny counts for us,” Souza noted. Electricity is cheap in your case because it is intended for rural and night-time consumption. Bread production begins at 5 p.m. and ends at 3 or 4 a.m. the next morning, from Monday to Thursday, according to Maristela Vieira de Souza, the group’s secretary.
The industrial furnace they use has low wood consumption. There is another one that operates on gas, which they only use in emergency situations, “because it is expensive.” Biogas is a possibility for the future, which would make use of the settlement’s numerous agricultural wastes.
Alternative energies make agribusiness viable
Ina de Cubas, another beneficiary of the women’s energy project, has a bio-digester that powers her stove, as well as eight photovoltaic panels. It generates the energy needed to produce fruit pulp that also supplies schools in Orizona, a municipality of 16,000 inhabitants located in central-eastern Goiás.
The solar power plant, installed two years ago, made the business viable by eliminating the “electricity bill,” which was high because two refrigerators needed to store fruit and pulp consumed a lot of electricity.
The abundance of fruit waste provides inputs for biogas production, an innovation in a region where faeces are more commonly used.
“I only use an extra load of animal feces when I need more biogas,” said Copas, who uses his neighbor’s cows because he does not keep the animals.
On its five hectares of land, Cuba has many types of fruits for its family industry.
In addition, typically Brazilian fruits, such as caja (Pondius Maupin), Becky (Cariocar Brasilense) and jabuticaba (Plinia clariflora) which can also be found in neighboring countries, there are lemons, mangoes, oranges, guava, avocados, etc.
The fruits of neighbors, most of whom are relatives, are also used to make pulp. Its products are distributed through the State Agroecology Association of Goiás (Aesagro), which brings together 53 families from the state of Arizona and surrounding areas.
Agroecology is the norm on the farm, where the family also grows rice, beans and garlic. For this large amount of production, the crops are irrigated with water pumped from nearby springs that have been restored by removing the road and fences to prevent the access of livestock that have trampled their banks.
“The aim of everything is to promote family farming, improve rural quality of life and income, take care of the environment and provide healthy and toxin-free food, especially for schools,” explained Ina de Cubas.
Biodegraders for iron and cement, and solar energy for various purposes, including water pumping, rainwater collection and storage, are part of the “technologies” that the Women’s Energy Project is trying to deploy, Gibaf Director Gisian Ribeiro summarized.
In the Ina de Cuba province, the project installed five biodigesters and seven solar pumps for peasant families, in addition to solar power plants in schools.
Peasant women in the network
The Women of the Earth Energy Network, articulated by the project and coordinated by Ribeiro, operates in six provinces, areas defined by the government based on environmental, economic, social and cultural similarities. In total, it includes 42 organizations in 27 municipalities in Goiás.
The regional councils select the beneficiaries of the projects, all of which are implemented through collective action and which target women’s productive activities, in order to preserve the Cerrado region. Agricultural engineer Ribeiro explained that all beneficiaries agree to contribute to the Solidarity Fund to finance new projects.
“The network is the link between the valorization of rural women, family farming and the energy transition,” he summed up. “We choose family farming because it produces healthy food,” he said.
“We are offering technological solutions that build on the relationship between food, water and energy, towards an energy transition that can actually confront climate change,” said sociologist Agnes Santos, a researcher and communicator at the network.
Restoring and protecting the springs is another work undertaken by the Women’s Network.
Nubia Lacerda Matias celebrates the moment she was called into the movement. He won a solar pump, made up of two solar panels and tubes, that delivers water to his livestock that had previously destroyed the spring, which is now protected by a fence in a small forest.
“It’s important not only for my family, but also for the people living down there,” he admitted, as the contribution of other springs forms a stream.
But the milk from the 29 cows and maize crops on the 9.4-hectare farm is not enough to support the family with two young children. The husband, Wanderlei Dos Anjos, works abroad as a school minibus driver.
Ina de Cubas’ partner, Rosalino Lopez, also works as a technician for the Pastoral Lands Commission, a Catholic organization focused on rural workers.
In his spare hours, Lopez invents agricultural machinery. He collects and assembles parts of motorcycles, tractors and other implements, trying to fill the shortage of small-scale agriculture, which undervalues mechanical industry and scientific research in Brazil.
Ed: For example
