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Asuncion, June 23, 2022 (IICA) – Rosalina Jarolin Fernández, a Paraguayan family farmer who has worked for small producers to associate, directly market their food and thus obtain better income, was declared “Rurality Leader” of the Americas by the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture (IICA).

The distinction, called "Soul of Rurality", recognizes his effort to raise awareness, among farmers in the municipality of Itá, about the importance of associativism as a way to access a better quality of life

Recognition of the Rural Leaders of the Americas is carried out by IICA to reward and give visibility to those who fulfill a double irreplaceable role: to be guarantors of food and nutritional security and at the same time guardians of the planet's biodiversity through production in any circumstance. These are men and women who leave their mark and make a difference in the field of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Rosalina grew up in a family dedicated to the production of rice but she, from a young age, turned to the dressmaker's trade. Family circumstances made her rediscover agriculture, which she rediscovered with passion.

Today it is a benchmark for the Curupicaity Association, made up of 53 farmers, 24 of them women. Every day she dedicates herself to farm work early in the morning and then travels 38 kilometers to the Paraguayan capital, Asunción, to attend the organization's fruit and vegetable stall. In addition, it seeks to instill in the youth of Itá a love for agriculture.

IICA, which considers agriculture as an instrument for peace and the integration of peoples, works together with its 34 Representations in the Americas to select the # Leaders of the Rurality.

The dressmaker who abandoned the scissors and rediscovered her vocation for agriculture

Although she grew up on a farm in the Paraguayan municipality of Itá, where she collaborated with her parents in agricultural tasks, Rosalina Jarolin did not always dedicate herself to food production. Instead, she learned the secrets of the dressmaker's trade at a very young age and for many years dedicated herself to making clothes. It was unexpected life circumstances that led her to regain contact with the land and agricultural production.

Today he feels that, having returned to farming, he rediscovered his true calling. Not only because every day she produces fruits such as melons and strawberries and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash and cucumbers, but also because she is a true leader in her community. Rosalina has been one of the creators of the Curupicayty Association. Through it, family farmers from Itá organized themselves in search of a more advantageous marketing of their production and a better quality of life for their families.

“As a woman I fulfill a double role. Because I do the housework and I support my family, although my four children are grown up, and I also work in the garden. The love for agriculture is in my blood and that is why I keep going, always producing and looking for the best way to commercialize our products collectively. We have received significant support from both IICA and the Paraguayan Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, which have trained us and given us tools to do better. But what makes me happiest is that in our Association there are young people, women and men who work hard to keep family farming alive”, Rosalina enthuses.

She especially values the participation of women in agriculture and in collective social life: “Before, in our community, women were housewives and only dedicated themselves to housework and childcare. That is why they had no income of their own. Today many women work in production and are independent. We women must not allow the spaces we conquered to be taken away from us and we must take advantage of the opportunities. I really like working together with other women.”

His day starts every day at 5 in the morning, when he gets up, drinks some mates and goes to his farm, where he has 5 hectares of land but uses less than half of it to produce fruit and vegetables. There Rosalina goes through the different crops and is aware of each one of the jobs that are done. He likes to be in contact with the land so much that he is not absent from the farm even on Sundays.

The day is long, because in the late afternoon she leaves for Asunción, the Paraguayan capital, 38 kilometers from Itá, and attends the position of the Curupicayty Association in the Central Market of Abasto, the wholesale establishment where they stock up every day. fresh food all the shops in the country.

From cutting and sewing to agriculture

Rosalina grew up in a humble family, dedicated to the production of rice. There were nine siblings who collaborated with their parents on the farm, in a low-tech job that required great effort. That is why her parents saw to it that she studied dressmaking, so that she could earn a living as a dressmaker and not be exposed to so many sacrifices. However, when she was already married, an accident suffered by her husband, which left her with consequences and prevented her from continuing to work in agriculture, was the episode that led her to take courage and change the scissors for work in the garden, without stopping. because their children were boys of school age.

She began agricultural production with some strawberry seedlings provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and from there she did not stop. He turned to fruit and vegetable production, but quickly realized that family farmers needed to partner together to get ahead.

“We started holding meetings to see how we could solve the different problems we had. Marketing the tomato we produced, for example, was very difficult due to the entry of products from Brazil and Argentina. Many times we had to end up throwing away our crops, because we couldn't sell them. So we formed the Association, which since 2006 directly sells the food we grow in the Asunción Abasto Market,” says Rosalina.

She decided to work together with a colleague at the Association's sales stand, which initially consisted of 17 producers. Today, the organization brings together 53 farmers, of which 24 are women, and already has legal recognition and has their taxes up to date.

“It is very important – he warns – to be able to sell food directly, without intermediaries. But not all farmers can go to the market to take care of the stall, because some of them lack the charisma to be merchants. You have to know how to treat customers and you must have patience and perseverance. If we farmers do not unite and organize ourselves, the one who takes the most important profit is the intermediary.”

Rosalina also has a special concern for the future of agricultural activity and the role of young people. That is why he spends a lot of time working with them, listening to their needs and concerns, and sharing his experience with them.
“I always tell them to love working the land and to value the people who work in agriculture, because they are the ones who put food on the table every day. Many young people leave the countryside to study in the cities and do not want to return. I believe that we, who are from the countryside, have to encourage them so that, even if they have a profession, they love rural life”.

Rosalina recognizes that the key is to create opportunities for those who live in rural areas: “Sometimes it is not easy for small producers to be profitable and live well; That is why it is important that in all countries there are institutions that work to give tools to family farmers, so that they have a better quality of life. It will depend on that that young people want to work the land and that we save family farming.”

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