For 25 years, Juana has managed a wildlife conservation management unit in the southern state of Chiapas, where she spends her time raising animals and restoring the environment
San Jose, 9 May 2022 (IICA) - Juana García Palomares from Mexico, who promotes the collective organization of small and medium-scale female farmers and is one of the founders of the National Association of Rural Women Entrepreneurs, was named “Leader of Rurality” by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
The “Soul of Rurality” award recognizes her work in support of the well-being of rural communities and of healthy food production in harmony with nature.
For 25 years, Juana has managed a wildlife conservation management unit in the southern state of Chiapas, where she spends her time raising animals and restoring the environment.
IICA recognizes Leaders of Rurality in the Americas to reward and bring visibility to those who play the irreplaceable dual role of being guarantors of food and nutrition security, while also being guardians of the planet’s biodiversity through production in any circumstances. These are men and women leaving their mark and making a difference in the rural areas of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The National Association of Rural Women Entrepreneurs comprises 127 organizations and 9,000 female farmers from Mexico’s 32 states. Its purpose is to ensure that food is produced under high standards of quality and sustainability.
Juana is also the Director of Gender Equality for the municipality of Berriozábal, where she works with vulnerable communities to eradicate domestic violence, among other issues.
IICA considers agriculture to be an instrument for peace and the integration of all peoples, and is working alongside its 34 Delegations in the Americas to select the #LeadersofRurality.
Juana García Palomares: the woman who understood that collective work is the only way forward for female farmers
Juana García Palomares was born in northern Mexico to a large peasant family that lived and worked the land in the state of Tamaulipas. Her father was a sugarcane and corn farmer, while her mother took care of the housework, of which there was always plenty in a home of eight sons and two daughters.
“When I was a girl”, she recalls, “life on the farm was very different to life today. We farmed without the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. We were much more careful and generous with natural resources. We protected the water and soil using practices that were passed down from our ancestors”.
Her happy childhood in the countryside was marked by the freedom to communicate with nature, something she says has changed over the years: “When I arrived home from school, I would change and go bathe in a stream that was close to home, with crystalline waters. Unfortunately, that all ended because the current contamination of water bodies has created a very different landscape”.
At the age of 15, Juana left her rural environment to study in the city. She graduated from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León as an industrial chemical engineer; however, she never actually practiced her profession because she knew her vocation was to work with disadvantaged rural communities in forming organizations and associations as the path to accessing a better quality of life.
More specifically, her vocation was to seek options of production that would provide an answer to the myriad of problems plaguing the men and women who live and work in the countryside.
In 1996, Juana and her family settled in southern Mexico, where she set up a wildlife conversation management unit in the municipality of Berriozábal, in the entity of Chiapas. It is called Santa Cecilia and encompasses a surface area of one and a half hectares, where they sustainably raise native and exotic animals, such as deer, pheasants, collared peccaries and peacocks, with the aim to recover populations, reproduce and sell for food.
They also take in and rehabilitate rescued animals in critical condition. “It’s a space where we restore the health of the soil, fauna and flora, and that today serves to show children and young people that it is possible to recover the natural resources that people have destroyed. We also sell wild game meat raised under the highest quality standards”, says Juana.
But perhaps the most important lesson she learned from her experience in animal production was the need for small-scale farmers—and especially small-scale female farmers—to form associations, because without that organization and information, it is practically impossible to succeed in agriculture, due mostly to the difficulties in accessing financing and trade mechanisms and, above all, training and technical assistance.
“We have identified that in our country, women make up 43% of the labor force for food production”, explains Juana. “However, when we compare the support received by men and women, there is a gap that makes us vulnerable. We are confronting this reality by seeking to organize. In 2017, we founded the Asociación Nacional de Mujeres Empresarias del Campo [National Association of Rural Women Entrepreneurs], comprising 127 entities and a total of 9,000 members from across Mexico’s 32 states. The Association works to ensure that the food that reaches tables is produced in accordance with the principles of quality and respect for natural resources”.
The Association’s members produce a wide array of products, including cacao, nuts, vegetables, corn and beans, as well as processed products, such as jams, dairy, beer and natural cosmetics. They also grow flowers and raise both small and large-scale livestock, to name a few.
“Our second biggest concern after production was trade”, continues Juana, “and so we participate permanently in fairs, exhibits and other spaces where we can display our products. IICA’s support has been important in making our efforts visible. That strengthens us”.
Juana explains that, despite Mexico’s vast size and extraordinary diversity of cultures and ecosystems, the weaknesses, threats, strengths and opportunities facing female farmers across the country are similar.
“This is a great country where women harbor a wealth of traditional knowledge that makes us strong. However, that plethora of experience doesn’t make sense without associations and organizations of both rural and urban men and women working together to find solutions to everyday problems”, she affirms.
Today, Juana is also the Director of Gender Equality for the municipality of Berriozábal, and is responsible for handling issues related to physical and psychological violence, which surged during the lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are facing a number of situations”, she says, “despite Chiapas being a wonderful state with big opportunities. There is a saying that goes, ‘we’re like the water-carrier’s donkey, who is loaded with water, but dies of thirst’. We have a wealth of natural resources and yet we have populations living in extreme poverty. This situation should not exist and so we work to inspire young people and women to love the earth and conserve our wealth”.
“We must make the youth of today value the work of past generations to make our planet and our community spaces where we can live in harmony. Both men and women came from the earth; the time has come for us to feel proud of those origins and to learn about history, because those who don’t know history are destined to not live fully. I invite young people to take the knowledge of past generations and combine it with their own to contribute to the development of their communities. There cannot be harmonious urban development if we abandon the fields, because there wouldn’t be any food. Without farms, we are condemned to a rapid extinction. That isn’t catastrophic thinking; it’s a reality. Returning to our origins is to appreciate the earth and the sustainable management of natural resources”.
Today Juana assures that she is a proud peasant woman and that she is convinced that the primary responsibility of current generations is to not assume that they own the natural resources, but rather that it is their responsibility to conserve and restore them for future generations.
“If we want to build a world of peace”, she concludes, “we must assume that humanity cannot exist without placing value on natural resources and instead forgetting their origin”.
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