On this page
Labranza de Paz
This initiative focuses on empowering peasant families in Colombia by integrating them into the modern economy through entrepreneurial partnerships with the private sector.
Description
Incubadora de Sueños plans to establish Labranza de Paz over the next two years, and the initiative is currently in the evaluation phase.
Labranza de Paz will contribute to rural development in Colombia, more specifically in the Department of Norte de Santander, through the integration of the traditional peasant into the modern economy. This will help rural workers find solutions to the various causes of the historic conflict for land. Through this process the initiative hopes to improve the quality of life for Colombian peasants.
In many cases the Colombian State hasn’t been able to guarantee property rights over allegedly extinct domains. Experience shows that attempts at agricultural reform in the country have failed, without finding long term solutions to the conflict regarding the use and ownership of the land.
Incubadora de Sueños has found that the origins of the armed conflict are strongly related to the struggle for land. The conflict has disconnected the rural community from the land and disempowered peasant families. More and more land has greater strategic importance as a means of territorial control and power for the armed parties, thereby forcing peasants to move to the cities. This displacement is ongoing and leads to higher poverty as the families are unable to find employment in the cities.
Labranza de Paz will begin working with 15 peasant families through a model of association and entrepreneur management that can be easily emulated in other communities. This would allow for the establishment of a development centre at the regional level, which would aid the integration of the peasant economy and the private entrepreneurial economy.
In this way, the initiative will generate socially sustainable and profitable business ventures, which would in turn promote the use of similar models elsewhere, through workshop demonstrations and field trips nationwide. This will help reduce the effects of conflict on the peasant community and strengthen their cultural identity.
Aims / Objectives
Labranza de Paz aims to develop a strategy for the transition of rural communities into the modern marketplace. The initiative also aims to incorporate two productive systems: one orientated towards peasant production and the other one towards an entrepreneur production system. This model encourages incentives to train individuals as participants in a common market and as active citizens.
The initiative creates an essential foundation for the future resolution of problems hindering rural development in Colombia. Moreover, the project is able to transform the traditional agricultural peasant model into a model of modern economy in which peasants keep their cultural identity and get involved in rural transformation at the entrepreneurial level.
To establish peace in Colombia rural and social transformation is essential and this is what Labranza de Paz is committed to achieving.
How it is Articulated
Evaluation and analysis of the situation through visits, training and workshops with community members, and meetings at the office in Bogotá
Achievements / Learning Points
Labranza de Paz is an innovative agricultural peace-building project that appeals to both the peasant and, due to its profitability, the private sector. The initiative is a self-sufficient programme that offers new and innovative opportunities to alleviate poverty. The people involved (peasants, producers, farmers, etc.) will move away from the illegal and violent activities fuelling the armed conflict and so Labranza de Paz will reduce community conflict. This process is mutually beneficial and can strengthen relationships between the peasants and the business community.
Labranza de Paz will work on several different levels at once, promoting collaboration between local, regional and national sectors, and the project even has strategic links with Israel. Some of the key players involved are the community of Bochalema working on the project, the Local Government of Bochalema, the Colombian Institute of Rural Development (INCODER), and the Secretary of Agriculture of Norte de Santander. The initiative's head office is in Bogotá D.C., where all the administrative and planning work takes place.
Thus, Labranza de Paz would achieve the following:
- Strengthen the agricultural sector and rural zones in different regions of the country;
- Reorganise the crop scheme of “pancoger” through small estates (“minifundios”), and initiate a new, sustainable scheme of intensive crop-farming;
- Help peasants become crucial actors and partners of the project;
- Create surplus production and revenue through the project;
- Create tools for emulating the model in other zones of the country;
- Strengthen the social fabric, the organisational structure and the tools of social regulation in the zone;
- Develop trust between the peasants and the government, thus identifying needs and immediate solutions;
- Establish a system of institutional incentives that reward common attitudes conducive to a strengthening of share capital;
- Develop leaders amongst the peasant population;
- Guarantee the social security of the members and beneficiaries of the project;
- Increase the average annual income per family;
- Gather the beneficiary families into a collective scheme with a private running partner in an agricultural project;
- Build a sustainable social relationship between the beneficiaries and the private running partner;
- Transfer knowledge from the private running partner to the beneficiaries in agricultural production, administration of agricultural projects, trade, and the use of technology;
- Create small bank accounts for the beneficiary families as an expression of the link between peasant families and the economy;
- Develop high quality agricultural production vis-à-vis the international standards;
- Guarantee the trade of products produced by the beneficiaries;
- Establish a source of development that would benefit the neighbouring population in agricultural training;
- Guarantee the environmental balance of the project and its geographical zone;
- Set up links with national and regional entities;
- Establish an educational plan that would benefit the children and parents of the peasant families; and
- Improve personal and community health.
Geographical Area of Operation
Department of Norte de Santander: Bochalema. Zone: La Selva
Funding Resources
- Riagro (private sector agricultural enterprise); and
- Cooperation with the European Community.
Organisations Involved
- European Community;
- Acción Social;
- Colombian Institute of Rural Development (INCODER);
- Secretary of Agriculture; and
- Agua para todos, todos para el Agua.