Projects developed in quilombos (settlements founded by escaped slaves) in the municipalities of Santa Rita and Anajatuba provide technical assistance to improve production in quilombola family farming.
Food security, income generation, and territorial strengthening are some of the key elements of the actions of the projects implemented in 10 quilombola communities in the municipalities of Santa Rita and Anajatuba, in Maranhão. Hundreds of quilombola farming families have begun receiving rural extension services and improvements to their honey and cassava processing units through two projects. The initiative takes place within the scope of support from the Floresta+ Amazônia Project.
In the Cariongo quilombo, in Santa Rita, the project Productive Backyards of Cariongo This will directly impact approximately 30 families and includes improvements to their backyards, with agroecological gardens, cultivation or management of forest, fruit, and medicinal species, raising small animals, and establishing a collective nursery with a diverse range of seedlings to generate income. The project also includes the collective development of a Quilombola Territorial Management Plan.
In Anajatuba, nine quilombola communities are already benefiting from the project. Agroecological Renaissance in Quilombos: Quilombola Farms, Backyards, and Agro-industries, reaching more than 150 families in the quilombos Pedrinhas I; Pedrinhas II; Centro do Isidório; Quebra; Capim; Bom Jardim; Ponta Bonita; São Pedro and Ilhas do Teso. These locations are part of the Union of Associations of Quilombo Remnant Communities of the Municipality of Anajatuba (Uniquituba).
This project also aims to improve productive backyards in family units, with the same objectives as Cariongo. The distinguishing features of the Anajatuba project are: the adaptation, implementation, and registration of agro-industries for processing honey and cassava in three communities, as well as the implementation of collective agroecological farms, aiming to build new knowledge about the management of productive areas and increase the productivity of cultivated crops.
Livelihood with environmental balance
A beneficiary in the Anajatuba area, Maria da Conceição Paiva Rodrigues participated in the project's discussion and development process from the very beginning. She has lived in the Ponta Bonita quilombo for 52 years and is an active leader with a diverse range of activities: she is a teacher in the quilombo, a family farmer, an artisan, and a community representative. On her property, together with her husband José Balbino Rodrigues, she has crops, raises chickens and pigs, cultivates fruit trees, medicinal plants, and engages in other rural activities in her backyard, both for family consumption and for sale.
“The main point of the project is that it will improve the quality of life for families in the quilombos, but it will also continue to strengthen our community in earning our living by using nature with respect and balance. It is a necessary technical support, which has always been a desire of the people here. We are proud to look at nature and feel part of its construction and care,” comments Maria da Conceição about the role of her quilombo in the sustainable use of resources.
Despite the constant search for a balance between productive activities and environmental preservation, the projects will help resolve major difficulties faced by the communities. Family farmers desire more training in the use of agroecological technologies for production. Furthermore, there is a lack of access to technical assistance and rural extension services, resulting in little strategic planning for field activities. The lack of essential inputs and equipment, according to the communities, is a daily challenge.
Among the project objectives is the preservation of traditional farming methods used for human and animal food, which is important for the Quilombola communities that are witnessing the progressive disappearance of this farming model due to deforestation around their areas and the introduction of genetic improvements. This genetic improvement is the process of intentionally selecting or modifying the genetic material of seeds. In the honey and cassava processing agro-industries of some of the beneficiary Quilombos, the structures are old and lack compliance with sanitary standards and good marketing practices.
“I was born and raised here, and one of the things I like most is knowing exactly where the food I'm eating comes from, without poison. With this project, I hope it will bring more production for us and improvements in the way we care for livestock, crops, and everything else that our community traditionally produces, respecting the environment and our culture. The aim is to expand our sales power and also to continue eating well,” explains José Balbino Rodrigues, a quilombola farmer from Ponta Bonita.
Quilombos in Maranhão
Maranhão is the state with the largest number of quilombos in Brazil: there are currently 816 communities certified by the Palmares Cultural Foundation. It is also the state with the second largest quilombola population in the country, with 269.074 people who self-identify as quilombola and live in 32 municipalities in Maranhão (IBGE, 2022).
In 2021, the National Coordination of Articulation of Rural Black Quilombola Communities (CONAQ) and the Amazon Conservation Team (Ecam) conducted a diagnostic study on Quilombola Family Farming with 211 Quilombola communities/associations in Maranhão, Bahia, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Tocantins, and in the Mesquita Quilombo (GO).
The diagnosis highlighted problems occurring in the exercise of the activity in the quilombola communities. Some of the points raised in this diagnosis are addressed by the objectives of these projects developed by the communities in the municipalities of Santa Rita and Anajatuba. These include a lack of equipment and the absence of continuous technical support, which stems from the need for technical qualification for processing the produce. The mapping also reveals low production quality and low volume, as well as a lack of adequate pricing and adaptation of production to the standards of health surveillance and the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE).
Floresta+ Amazonia Project
The projects in the 10 quilombos of Maranhão, lasting 24 months, are supported by... Floresta+ Amazonia Project Within the Communities modality, the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) is the implementing organization for the projects, in partnership with the Association of Rural Agro-producers of Vila Cariongo and Uniquituba. This is an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), with support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
According to Ana Tereza Ferreira, coordinator of the Floresta+ Amazônia Project at ISPN, the communities served have a historical legacy in the preservation and use of sustainable land cultivation practices. “Both projects were designed to support the self-sufficiency of quilombola communities, ensuring that their traditional ways of life are respected and expanded based on agroecological practices. These projects not only aim to improve the quality of life of the communities, but also seek to serve as a model for development practices that respect and promote cultural and environmental diversity,” she states.
In August 2024, between the 20th and 23rd, more than 100 families received visits from ISPN technicians in the quilombos of Ponta Bonita, Centro do Isidoro, São Pedro, Pedrinhas and Pedrinhas II in Anajatuba, and in the Quilombo Cariongo, in Santa Rita. The objective was to draw up an initial diagnosis for implementation and to build brief individual and collective plans for the activities to be developed in each of the communities and family units benefited, based on the specificities of the projects.
Retired Maria de Nazaré Teixeira dos Santos was one of the beneficiaries who received a technical visit from the ISPN team in Quilombo Cariongo. She carries out various activities in her backyard, but the main one is raising chickens, where she has the help of her children and grandchildren who live in the community. “Raising chickens is the activity I enjoy doing most here in my yard, because we can eat and also sell. The chickens provide a good [financial] return. Talking here, I intend to expand my operation and receive the right technical guidance to improve what I have,” she explains.
Ruthiane Pereira, coordinator of the ISPN Maranhão Program, further explains that there are two more initiatives of the Floresta+ Amazônia Project in the process of being implemented in Indigenous Lands (TI), with the Guajajara and Awá peoples. The project Guajajara Women: Protecting the Forest and Knowledge, in partnership with the Nayrui Taw Community Association, Tarumâ, Chupé and Lagoa Quieta Villages, will work in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory, and the project is entitled Fire prevention and fighting: knowledge production and exchange among indigenous brigades in the Caru Indigenous Territory, Maranhão. It is being developed in the Caru Indigenous Territory, in partnership with the Wirazu Indigenous Community Association.
“The projects represent a significant dimension in the quilombola and indigenous territories. There are four initiatives being implemented by ISPN in Maranhão, within the scope of the Floresta+ Amazônia program. This scope reflects our commitment to territorial strengthening and the appreciation of the ancestral knowledge of these communities, which can be seen not only in the number of families served, but also in the diversity of actions we carry out. It is a coordinated effort to ensure that these communities can strengthen themselves autonomously,” comments Ruthiane Pereira, coordinator of the Maranhão Program, regarding the projects.
By Ariel Rocha/ISPN Communications Advisor