Valledupar, 11/06/2021
193 ex-combatants from the reincorporation process and 12 inhabitants of the community are involved in an integrated farm initiative in the municipality of Fonseca, where goats and laying hens are being raised, as well as crops, among other productive activities. This is how economic reincorporation is progressing in the Caribbean region.
A 200-hectare plot of land, located in the south of the department of La Guajira, rich in agricultural and livestock production, is the place where FARC-EP ex-combatants in the process of reincorporation develop their economic and family sustenance activities.
The San Luis Farm, just a few minutes from the village of Conejo, in the jurisdiction of Fonseca municipality, was the ideal place for a group of more than 200 people, including ex-combatants, family members and inhabitants of different communities, who are now members of the Multiactive Cooperative for Peace in Colombia, Coompazcol, to find in agriculture and working with animals the best way of reconciliation, not only delivering messages of peace, but also demonstrating through actions how important it is to serve the community.
The breeding of sheep or "goats" (locally known as “Chivos" in Spanish) -as it is known in the region-, laying hens with eggs that are marketed in the nearby towns of the place, crops and a warehouse that provides the necessary inputs to ensure the food chain and food security, are the result of a joint process in which a project that grows every day and is the benefit for those who live in the village of Conejo is woven.
The farm has been strengthened through different agencies, such as the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN), SENA (National Learning Service), Paso Colombia and the World Food Program (WFP), among others, who with their permanent accompaniment and technical assistance have made good use of the existing resources to self-supply the residents of the former ETCR Pondores and the surrounding population in general.
For Wilfren Martínez, an ex-combatant and one of the leaders of the project, the growth of their actions does not stop. He says that the department's natural scenery is more than perfect for raising animals and being able to "take roots" by tilling the land.
"We wanted to start this sheep breeding production unit because, apart from preserving our roots and customs, the climate of the region is suitable for the animals. We started with 35 specimens of the Creole breed from La Guajira, then we brought others from Santa Inés and dorper breed to improve the genetics. Now we have 230 and the aim is at having more production and to use it for self-consumption, both for those of us in the reincorporation process and for the community", says the Coompazcol representative.
Currently, the cooperative is working to strengthen this project to position it in the region as the most compliant in terms of sanitary issues and to subsequently commercialize its animals.
But if they have managed to reproduce the sheep on this farm, where hope and joy are also sown, the laying hens also have their place. The enterprise, which began as a pilot project with 200 birds for self-consumption, has grown to 3,000 hens that have reached a daily production of more than 2,500 eggs, which are sold to customers in the village of Conejo and the municipality of Fonseca.
Although there is currently a recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic juncture, which has reduced the production and sale of eggs, Ingrid, the ex-combatant who has been managing this initiative for two years, does not hesitate to say, convinced, that the desire to continue working remains: "One of the desires that I and our leaders of this farm are looking forward is to move this project forward, the aim is having 5,000 hens in order to be self-sustaining, to generate employment for the community and the ex-combatants and above all we want to expand our business".
This barn at Granja San Luis has pasture for its hens. This allows not only the production of eggs already standardized by weight as type A, AA and Jumbo, but also the production of good quality semi-bred eggs due to the consumption of various foods that are found in their outdoor breeding, such as corn fodder, moringa, Gliricidia, scallions and garlic water, among others, which strengthen them organically.
According to the Director General of the ARN, Andrés Felipe Stapper Segrera, "with the strengthening of projects such as the San Luis Integral Farm, we confirm that Peace with Legality, a policy of President Iván Duque, advances with the commitment of the national government and, very importantly, with the perseverance and determination of the people in reincorporation who organize themselves around productive units such as this one to develop their life projects in legality and benefit the communities through economic sustainability".
When the ex-combatants thought of promoting an integral farm, they not only focused on the production and execution of each of the initiatives, but also on obtaining the inputs to develop them successfully. In this sense, the Coompazcol cooperative also created the Almacén Agropecuario (Agricultural Warehouse) a few kilometers from the farm, in the village of Conejo, exclusively for the sale and marketing of agricultural and veterinary products and inputs.
"With the cooperative we saw the need to set up this warehouse, first because it arose from the need of the consumer and the community, since in Conejo there was no such business and they had to travel further distant places to buy their things. In addition, we try to offer products at more convenient prices because we are direct distributors of some brands, to help them", said Iseth Montero, an ex-combatant who manages the warehouse.
As an added value, the warehouse also offers vaccination and veterinary medicine services, and in the very near future they plan to implement the 'barter' system, so that farmers who do not have the economic resources available to buy, can exchange the products they grow for items from the warehouse.
Interesting facts:
- 352 ex-combatants of FARC Ep are in the process of reincorporation in La Guajira in municipalities such as Fonseca, Maicao, Hatonuevo and Villanueva, among others.