Caracas, September 8, 2023. The members of Sectores Unidos Commune, in Villa Nueva, Hilario Luna y Luna parish in Moran municipality, Lara state, initiated the project of an agroecological coffee school to promote the production of this local product through agricultural practices that allow regeneration of the soil, the preservation of water sources and substitute the use of toxic chemical fertilizers that endanger life.
According to Norkis Ramos, a spokeswoman for the Sectores Unidos Commune, the men and women of this territory are committed to taking care of the place where they live, so they began to work to reestablish a relationship of respect and harmony with the environment.
“Our commune is 100% coffee-growing, that is why we want to strengthen consumption and production, but for life. We want a reconnection with Mother Earth. Our goal is to regain the ancestral culture of protecting the Pachamama. And how do we achieve this? With permanent training, that is why we opened an agroecological coffee school, located in the Argelia Laya Collective of our territory, to promote the teaching of children, teenagers, and adults in agroecological agriculture and to start changing our relationship with nature,” stated Ramos.
The spokeswoman, Norkis Ramos, assured that the idea of the school arose because the Sectores Unidos Commune also belongs to the Vida Café Communal Economic Circuit, and this people’s power organization raises multiple projects to guarantee the common welfare, and that implies recovering the original relationship with Mother Earth.
“The Vida Café Communal Economic Circuit is integrated by 128 communal councils of eight communes (six of the Hilario Luna y Luna parish and two of the Guarico parish) of the Moran municipality. Although it was born in May 2022, we already had an efficient communal organization that arose due to the crisis, the pandemic, and the need to solve our problems. We progressed in a year and a half, especially in self-management. We have improved in the health area with a repowered ambulance. We improved our roads, telecommunications, and the creation of aid funds for the small coffee producers because this circuit exists for the peasants who need it the most,” stated Ramos.
According to the spokeswoman, just as the community members have united to meet local needs, they plan to strengthen popular training in agroecology to protect biodiversity.
“For our commune, it is essential to multiply native, 100% organic seeds and eliminate chemical fertilizers that pollute the planet. We reside in an extraordinarily mountainous area, so we must learn to care for this natural lung in our territory. Our parish is the second largest in size and population in the municipality, so it is vital to create ecological awareness. Coffee determines the life of the peasant family here in our territory. We want this work in the field so that coffee production does not continue to destroy the land. We want to return to the roots, to our ancestral identity that coexists in harmony with the environment,” he expressed.
Ramos added that workshops will take place in the agroecological coffee school as in other areas of the Sectores Unidos Commune, as well as in the other communes of the Vida Café Communal Economic Circuit to share and multiply the knowledge on agroecological practices and processes.
