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3 February 2009 | |

Women Against Drought

Interview with Marta Borges, leader of family farmers, about the role of the rural women in the measures to fight the drought that affects Uruguay.

Length: 2:20 minutes
Download: MP3 (1.1 Mb)

The family farming and cattle growing sector in Uruguay has been mobilizing for a month in order to find solutions to the terrible drought that has reduced production and local economies of tens of thousands of people from the rural areas.

In the mobilization, rural women are the main actors. In several regions they are the heads organizing water distribution, both for human or animal consumption.

Several rural grassroots institutions have reappeared in the past three years, which are linked with family production of food in the country. The family contribution in this process has had strong and unprecedented predominance in rural unionization.

In the south of Uruguay, several staple food seasons are underway, although they have been severely affected by the lack of water that has lasted 100 days: tomato for industry, onion, apple and soon grape production, in which more and more women from all over the country are working. They are usually seasonal workers in other areas and supplement their income by collecting grapes in Montevideo lands.

Marta Borges is one of those women who have been playing a decisive role so that drinking water, cattle feed and some scarce irrigation to try to save the harvest and the livelihood of the families throughout winter, arrive on time, also prioritizing those who need it the most.

We talked with Borges, who is the leader of a civil society in Miguez, nearly 80 kilometers from Montevideo. She told us about the situation of her family and her role in this emergency.

Onions, tomatoes and cattle are the backbone of her family’s economy. “We finished working and we will go to the civil society’s office in the afternoon to see what can be done, how we can help the neighboring families”, she said.

Marta is also a member of the group of farmers who have decided to organize in a co-op and have their own tomato mill to make tomato pulp. This project will be delayed for a year because of the failure of the crops, as a result of the lack of water.

(CC) 2009 Real World Radio

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