ABREU, L. S. de

WATANABE, M. A.

English

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The Women Role in the Agroenvirnomental Activities of Amazon Agroforeststry SystemsWatanabe, M.A.1 & Abreu, L.S.2AbstractThis paper aims to present the results o f a research about the way by which the female farmers contribute to overcome the life hindrances in the Amazon agroforestal environment in relation to food security, family income, to social stability, and recuperation and conservation o f biodiversity. A sampie of 50 women beionging to smali farms o f the Associação de Produtores Alternativos (APA) from Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia, Brazil, was taken for the study. APA small farmers are mostly descendants from Brazilian Southeast States migrants, and took to Rondônia the healthy habits of vegetable and fruit consumption. In contact with traditional communities like the rubber tappers and riverine people, they learned how to cultivate Amazonian native plants like vegetables, fruits, and medicinal plants. The rubber tappers' women know about 150 species of Amazonian plants. The migrant farmers in contact with the traditional communities are learning the cultivation o f native plants and native animais like Amazonian fish and honeybees. Traditionally, in Brazilian rural zone the women and the children constitute non-paid labor, and due to this labor it was possible the implantation o f perennial cultures in Rondônia, in the beginning of its occupation. In Ouro Preto do Oeste, the women play important roles in the conduction o f agroforesttry systems, as farm labor (78.0%), participating in decision-making, such as what plants to cultivate (18.0%), the destination o f the harvest (32.0%) what animais to raise (14,0%), and which destination for animal production (34.0%). As traditionally happens in other Brazilian rural zone, the APA s women are unpaid labor, together with their children in spite o f their active contribution for farm income generation. This work is undervalued, poorly recognized, and has low social visibility. Nevertheless, they get some monetary income, with occasional commercialization o f on-farm processed products such as cheese, pickles, jellies, and fruit liqueurs. Three distinct roles can be played by the APA’s women. (1) Within the family, she is the spouse, the mother of the farmers children and a working partner; (2) For the farm economic management, the woman contributes for the selection of varieties to be planted and animais thar are economically the most interesting to raised. The same can be applied for the destination o f harvest and animal products. (3). The women's contribution to the agroforestry activities are the conservation and recuperation o f biodiversity, the conservation o f ecological equilibrium, conservation, perpetuation, and dissemination o f the forest traditional knowledge, and local germplasm (creole seeds). Given the low fecundity among the APA's women (2.14 children/woman), and since 14.3% of the couples are childless, the importance of womem for making farm activities viable is essential, provided that only 4.0% of the families can afford to hire labor from outside the farm.1 Embrapa Meio Ambiente, Caixa Postal 69, 13820-000 Jaguariúna, SP, Brazil, e-mail Watanabe@cnpma.embrapa.br2 Ibid., e-mail lucimar@cnpma.embrapa.br

The women role in the agroenvironmental activities of Amazon agroforeststry systems.

https://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/bitstream/doc/16137/1/WatanabeWomenresumo.pdf

The women role in the agroenvironmental activities of Amazon agroforeststry systems.

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