Honduras: Women Make a Start in Agroforestry

Abstract

"COHDEFOR is the Honduras Forestry Development Corporation, whose promoter had recently presented the farmers with a new system to be used in working the very eroded and, in some cases, bare highlands of the settlement. The help he had offered consisted mainly of cereals for food, and farm implements for the construction of terraces and the reforestation of some areas. The men of the settlement had not shown any interest, since they were busy working the valley lands and were distrustful of anything new. Despite this, they agreed to give a plot of land to each woman to try. María and nine of the other farm women knew that these very steep lands would be hard to till in the manner they were used to. They also knew that every day firewood was becoming scarcer and more expensive. But they decided to try, first on Doña María's land and later on that of the others. This, then, was the reason for her insisting on paying them herself if the technicians did not do so: she was perfectly aware of the greater possibilities of this new way of working. It was, besides, a challenge to show that women could accomplish something different from their household duties."