AGROSAVIA contributes to the economic autonomy of rural women through a peasants’ market in San Juan del Cesar, La Guajira

Codazzi, Cesar. August 4, 2025. According to the DANE bulletin on rural women in Colombia, “the labor market in rural areas is unfavorable for women; they face lower employment rates and higher unemployment rates compared to men.” Added to this is the high burden of unpaid work that they undertake daily, which, according to the same bulletin, accounts for 62% of more than 12 hours a day, compared to 27% for rural men.

With the aim of reducing gender gaps in rural areas, the Motilonia Research Center, through the team led by Researcher Clara Viviana Rúa, has been implementing actions as part of the project “Participatory validation of productive reconversion practices with an agroecological approach in agri-food systems in the Municipality of San Juan del Cesar, La Guajira,” funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This project has fostered inclusive spaces for knowledge management around sustainable practices, natural resource conservation, and, among others, the study of the role of rural women in the family economy through the economic, social, and ecological analysis of agricultural production, using tools and methodologies specific to participatory research.

Clara Rúa explains that, after seven months of meetings and experience sharing with a group of 20 women from veredas (small suburban countryside districts) El Placer, Guayacanal, and El Totumo —members of the ASOMUETO Peasant Women’s Association and the ACAGUATERRATO Association—, the first Peasants’ Market was held in El Totumo. This space was conceived as a strategy to strengthen the peasant economy of rural women and their families, through the autonomous production and elaboration of food and crafts with an agroecological approach, contributing to the reduction of gender gaps and the fulfillment of SDG 5 – Gender Equality.

According to Evelin Gómez, Research Support Professional at AGROSAVIA, “it was a goal achieved to see women offering a wide variety of fresh, processed products and handicrafts at the market. All of these were created based on their traditional knowledge, using sustainable practices, free of agrochemicals, and typical of their local culture. This reflects the commitment shown by the participants during the meetings with AGROSAVIA and the learning resulting from the use of agroecological notebooks, a tool supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Brazil. These notebooks allow monitoring women’s production, making visible their contributions to self-consumption, exchange, donation, and sales, thus recognizing the value of their work and promoting their empowerment.”

In just one day of the peasants’ market, women recorded COP 1,700,000 in sales, with products such as panela, cassava, sweets, plantains, eggs, yam, goat meat, chicken meat, creole hen, cheese, whey, rice with goat milk, goat rice, avocado, antipasto, mango, fique fiber bags, cashew, chili peppers, coriander, papaya, pumpkin, among others. Besides AGROSAVIA, the event was supported by the technical team of TECNIGAN – FEDEGÁN Cesar–La Guajira and the institutional offer of Banco Agrario, aimed at participating women.

According to María Ledezma, Technology Transfer Professional at the Motilonia Research Center, “the peasants’ market, in addition to fulfilling its initial objective, became a space to strengthen the self-confidence of rural women, recognize their capabilities, and value the importance of their work in the community. It was amazing to see the joy on their faces from the money earned, for sharing the stories behind each product offered, and for being recognized as rural women.”