During a script-writing workshop, besides validating fact sheets, the writers went back to the field to share their ideas for scripts with the communities. Because once is not enough: you have to talk to several people to get a more complete vision of your topic.
In Carrillo, Cotopaxi, Ecuador, some of our script writers had interacted with the community for years. This village had a lot of experience with organization. The writers in our workshop managed to bring together a large group of women who had held leadership roles for years.
I was in Carrillo with Diego Montalvo, agronomist, and Guadalupe Padilla, environmental engineer, who works in the community. As we clustered on the porch of the community center, a local woman, doña Verónica, told her story. She left Carrillo to study agronomy. After graduation she lived in the city for two years, but she came home when her dad became ill. Because of her education, she was assigned a leading role in a local organization, one she has kept for years. Not that it’s always easy; the men in the group tend to listen more to male leaders, and at times they make noise to disrupt the meeting when women leaders are speaking.
At the end of a frank and useful meeting, the women farmers spontaneously began discussing another topic among themselves, something more interesting: animal health.
The whole group wanted to learn how to vaccinate, give medicines and even do minor surgery on dairy cattle. Verónica explained that she had learned almost all there was to know about cattle at university, even artificial insemination, and she would like to help this group receive training on livestock.
The women’s group had demanded that Guadalupe prepare more information for them on how to make their own cattle feed. It caught my attention that these outspoken, well-organized women wanted to talk so much about cows. Later I realized why, when I spoke with some of our other writers in the workshop.
These farmers, whose ancestors had grown potatoes for centuries, wanted to abandon the crop, to raise cattle. The potatoes were being destroyed by a mysterious new disease called purple top, still poorly understood by scientists. The disease ruins the potatoes. The farmers have fought back against purple top by spraying insecticides every week to kill the psyllid, a small insect which may vector the disease. But even by spending a thousand dollars a year, per farm, the disease was out of control.
On the other hand, the rolling fields of Carrillo are perfect for alfalfa and other fodder crops. And cities like Quito, growing explosively, buy all the milk that Ecuador’s farmers can provide. The weekly payment from the dairy would allow the women farmers to buy food for their families. This is why the women leaders are so interested in cattle.
Smallholders, ever adaptable, are willing to change from one farming system to another, completely different one. From potatoes to cows, to adapt to changes in the natural environment. Women farmers often value training on leadership, but farming constantly requires new technical information, which smallholders want to receive.
Access Agriculture videos on dairy cows
Keeping milk free from antibiotics
Taking milk to the collection centre
Making balanced feed for dairy cows
Calcium deficiency in dairy cows
