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María Concepción Gómez bends over an orchard of almost a hectare and picks one of its fruits. “We eat delicious here,” says the woman of the Wayuu ethnic group. By this he is referring to his community of Apairao in Nazareth, a corregimiento of Colombia’s Alta Guajira, adjacent to Macuira National Natural Park and almost eight desert hours from Riohacha, the capital. In his department, La Guajira, the poverty rate is over 50%, according to the national statistics agency DANE. In his area, one of the driest areas in the country, one hears a lot about the “water problem” and news about childhood malnutrition often comes from there, too.
But what you see around you might be the opposite of what is being said about La Guajira. The place where it stands is a community garden with dozens of fruit trees and plants where nine Wayuu families work. There the water was no longer a problem. It comes from an underground well, is pumped by a motor powered by a solar panel, and is distributed throughout the orchard by drip irrigation several minutes a day. What is produced is diverse. There are chops, plantain, arracacha, cilantro, cherry tomato, and chili, among others. “Things we haven’t eaten before,” says Gómez.
A member of the Santa Rosa community plants a tomato, one of the fruits they have not eaten before.María Mónica Monsalve
Her garden has become a laboratory for the community. “The tomatoes didn’t grow in the sun and now they do better in the shade,” says another woman, referring to a recommendation they received from a technical team at the Alpina Foundation to leave the trees in the orchard and them not to fell to clear the territory. This is how they avoid deforestation. The community has been experimenting through trial and error for a year.
“The idea of this project is to strengthen local agricultural and food systems,” explains Elver García Rodríguez, technical coordinator of the Alpina Foundation, an organization that has been supporting seven other communities around Nazareth Apairao for the past year. so they create these closed systems where it’s also important that nothing goes to waste.
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In these orchards, pests are controlled with a mixture of spice and tobacco leaves. And a few months ago, California worms arrived to help their keepers turn waste into compost. “At first we were scared to put our hands in it, but you get used to it,” says Helena Urinia, a Wayuu from Santa Rosa Township, as she carelessly puts her hand in the soil, looking for worms.
His job at Wakes, he says, is to bring “chili, peppers and cilantro.” But in this orchard, the one in Santa Rosa, run by six people, there is also room to grow grass for the donkeys and goats. “Animals are important, too,” he says. What families don’t eat is sold to neighbors or bartered for another vegetable at the equivalent of the market price. Beginning in March, they also began selling at a point of sale that the eight participating congregations opened in downtown Nazareth.
Helena Urinia, a Wayuu woman, points out her coriander cultivation in the municipality of Santa RosaMaría Mónica Monsalve
“Part of the project is to create self-governing associative savings and credit models,” says García Rodríguez. What helps them, firstly, to be able to request calls from the Colombian state, which establishes the condition that the figure of the association exists. And secondly, so that they are sustainable in the long term. In Apairao, for example, the savings and credit group saves a small portion of their income to maintain the groundwater well. In addition, the eight communities formed the Kottirawa’a Wapushuaya Association, the owner of the recently opened outlet.
According to the Alpina Foundation, which oversees the process, these systems saved the eight communities around nine million pesos (nearly $2,000) in seven months and increased profit margin per production cycle by 68%, benefiting 172 families. “In an area like Alta Guajira, which is stigmatized by malnutrition and hunger, the main problem is timely access to nutritious and safe food,” says García.
Therefore, after a year of experience, the Foundation will begin supporting three more communities, this time within Macuira National Natural Park. Additionally, they will be supplying 80 bicycles over the next few months, along with World Bicycle Relief, so they can more easily get their products to market from the rancherías. Without having to walk for two hours.
The Wayuu communities have started to grow new products like this chili pepper that they often take with them to wake up.María Mónica Monsalve
Out of what comes from the orchards, the sheds and the pasture comes lunch. Meat, goat, rice, carrot and beetroot. As Gómez says, a delicious lunch.
*The Alpina Foundation funded the trip to find out more about the project.