Author: Talia Lostaunau

Reyna Isabel Mamani es socia de la cooperativa Inambari, una de las ocho bases de la Central de Cooperativas CECOVASA, ubicada en el valle de Sandia en Puno. 

Reyna es una mujer emprendedora y desde hace mucho tiempo se dedica a los cultivos de café y cítricos en su chacra, en el distrito de Alto Inambari. A pesar de que la región de Puno, en la que ella vive, es una de las que presentó menores casos confirmados del virus Covid-19, la pandemia ha afectado a los(as) pequeños(as) agricultores(as) de la cooperativa CECOVASA, a la cual pertenece, de diferentes formas. 

“Esta pandemia nos ha afectado a todos en todo sentido … A veces, solo con el café no podemos solventar nuestros gastos. La pandemia ha llegado rápido y no nos ha dado tiempo para prepararnos,” cuenta Reyna. Comenta también que uno de los principales desafíos a los cuales ha tenido que enfrentarse es la falta de mano de obra. Debido a las restricciones de movimiento, las personas que normalmente eran contratadas para la cosecha, no han podido llegar a las zonas cafeteras. “Por la falta de mano de obra se ha estado cayendo el café, afectando a los agricultores.”

No solo la mano de obra no ha podido llegar. Muchos de los alimentos, que normalmente llegaban desde la sierra de Puno, también han sido escasos durante los más de 100 días de cuarentena nacional establecida por el gobierno central. Reyna cuenta que ella y su familia pasaron momentos verdaderamente difíciles.

“Ahora ya estamos más organizados, pero cuando la cuarentena recién empezó, nos afectó mucho, hubo mucha desesperación. Mi familia no ha recibido ninguno de los bonos del gobierno.”

Reyna asegura que lo que la salvó en esta pandemia fue su café de calidad. Ella explica que en la central CECOVASA, primero se paga el adelanto del café y luego, entre los meses de febrero y mayo del año siguiente, se paga el reintegro, el cual depende de la calidad del café. Gracias a su esfuerzo, ella cosecha café de gran calidad, llegando a obtener hasta 86 puntos. “Gracias a ese reintegro yo he podido comer, eso me salvó. Yo valoro mi café. En estas temporadas de pandemia, eso fue lo que nos salvó a los cafetaleros.”

Reyna reconoce que se hubiera podido preparar mejor para obtener hortalizas de su chacra durante la cuarentena. Ella tiene un huerto del cual pudo cosechar algunos productos como lechugas y tomates. Sin embargo, cree que hubiera podido cosechar muchas más hortalizas, las suficientes para toda su familia, si la pandemia no la hubiera sorprendido. 

“Yo no cambio por nada mi valle. Aquí tenemos todo. Hierbas que podemos comer, aguas en las quebradas. Hubiéramos podido hacer mucho, hubiéramos podido abastecer a toda nuestra población. Ahora, después de esta pandemia, vamos a estar siempre preparados.”

 

By Trilce Oblitas, Peru Manager.

Since 1923, the first Saturday of July is the date to commemorate Cooperativism as it is the the International Day of Cooperatives. Though this day focusses on a different and relevant thematic each year, 2020 being Climate Change, it should allow us, considering the defiant context, to look back at how Cooperativism came to be and why it represents an organizational structure that challenged the status quo on the relationship between workers, a fair wage and working conditions, and the option to have a say in the business if a member. To date, according to the United Nations and the International Cooperative Alliance, there are 3 million cooperatives in the globe which employ around 280 million people.

It was during the late 1700s and mid 1800s that new forms of workers’ associations came to be, initially in Europe, but soon it would propagate to other regions were, it is worth mention, different forms of collaborative work had been in place prior to colonization. In Peru for example, the Inca civilization had exercised different collaborative and communal forms of work such as the Ayllu, Ayni and Minka. However, and in particular looking at the peasant and agricultural communities, which in Peru makes close to 30% of the cooperative type, during and after colonization, these forms of community-based collaboration were eradicated and a exploitative relationship between land-owners and land-workers were established.

Building on the spirit of cooperative work and the demand for a fair share of income, cooperativism defies this exploitation and also the enrichment of few at top at the expense of the majority at the bottom and it looks at eradicating the middle man which would usually get more income than the producers themselves. As such, while in Peru the Cooperativism movement, as we know it nowadays, had different waves and it was a social figure of organization pre-colonization, it only reached legality in 1964. However, it was not until the First Agrarian Reform lead by Velasco Alvarado, in 1969, that the exploitative, almost slavery-based, relationship between the land-owners and the land-workers, the peasants, was rebelled against. This is probably an important moment to look at, as it represented the beginning of a shift in the development paradigm and the role of social organization from a democratic lens.

According to the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), founded 125 years ago, cooperatives can be defined as an autonomous association of people that, voluntarily, have decided to work together in order to satisfy their needs and  social, cultural, economic aspirations shared. How do they do it? Through the creation of an enterprise/company that is co-owned by them and democratically governed.  Cooperativism can be a true democratic form of organization as it fights poverty and creates wealth to be shared equally between its members, “(…) this results from the co-operative principle of members’ economic participation: ‘Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their co-operative.’ Because co-operatives are people-centred, not capital-centred”,  they do not perpetuate, nor accelerate capital concentration and they distribute wealth in a more fair way” (United Nations).

Though working in development does not make organizations particularly democratic, it is well-known that top-down approaches resonate across the sector, I dare to postulate that Cooperativism and sustainable development are intrinsically connected. Furthermore, the social, economic and environmental commitments to their communities and the global community, accounts for a true form of sustainability. Perhaps it is then possible to say that Cooperativism is not only capable of challenging socio-economic structures thought to be fixed, but also transform them.

During the last 5 years, it has been a true privilege to be able to directly work and learn from the Cooperative movement and the agricultural world in Peru, Latin American and East Africa, were Producers Direct has over 38 partner organizations. These organizations and its members are truly inspiring as small-holder producers are not only the driving force of the cooperative values, but also the true pioneers of bottom-up and participatory principles of transformation which guide our vision of what sustainable development stands for and deeply represents our (shared) identity.

Thank you to all Cooperativistas. On the International Cooperative Day, we commemorate your hard work and celebrate the cooperative movement values that shape our own.