ACREUNA / ORIZONA, Brazil, Aug 26 (IPS) – A community bakery, family production of fruit pulp, and the discovery of water resources are some of the projects of the Energy of Women of the Earth, organized since 2017 in the state of Goiás. , in central-western Brazil.
A common resource is non-conventional renewable energy sources, such as solar and biomass, which are fundamental to the projects’ economic viability and environmental sustainability.
The network includes 42 women’s organizations in 27 municipalities in Goiás, a country that, like the rest of the mid-west region, has an economy dominated by monoculture, mainly soybeans, corn, sugar cane and cotton.
It is a poor environment for small family farming, due to the high population density and the distance from urban markets. The movement to strengthen the sector has grown significantly this century, with Agro Centro-West Family Farming Fairs promoted by local universities.
There are 95,000 family farms in Goiás, 63% of the total number of farms in the state.
“This network is a link between rural women’s determination, family farming and energy transition,” Gessyane Ribeiro, an agronomist who coordinates a project using alternative energy sources to promote women in agricultural production, told IPS.
The Energy of Women of the Earth project, which produced the network, is promoted by Gepaaf, a company known by the Portuguese abbreviation of its name, Management and Elaboration of Projects in Consultancy to Family Agriculture, and born from the Federal study group. University of Goiás.
Non-refundable funding from Caixa Economica Federal, a state bank focused on social support and housing, allowed the company, in collaboration with two institutions and a university, to implement actions involving 92 female farmers and set up 60 family projects and 16 others. projects are covered until June 2023.
In Acreúna, a municipality of 21,500 inhabitants, 14 female farmers create a bakery that supplies a variety of breads, cakes, pastries and biscuits to the local public schools, which have about 3,000 students. They are the women of Genipapo Settlement, where 27 families received plots of land in the government’s land reform program.
Solar energy makes the Residence’s Association business run smoothly, as well as primary education schools in nearby towns. The National School Feeding Program requires that beneficiary schools allocate at least 30% of their purchases to family farming.
In Orizona, a municipality with 16,000 inhabitants, Iná de Cubas received a biodigester and eight photovoltaic panels, which produce biogas and electricity for its pulp fruit production, and school meals.
Another technology deployed by this project, the solar pump, restored and preserved one of the springs that formed the stream in Arizona. The machine, using solar energy, pumps water from the spring to the lake of Nubia Lacerda Matias, where his cows quench their thirst.
In the past, animals went directly to the well, polluting the water and damaging the surrounding forest. The area was fenced off, protecting the water and vegetation, which grew and became denser, for the benefit of the people living downstream.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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