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Patricia Guzmán (left) and Salomé Tupa deliver on the promise of

women’s hard-won leadership in a traditionally male-dominated

rice sector

Salomé Tupa took a sipof hot coee, hoping itwould help her cope withthe suocating heat, as

she listened intently to her colleaguePatricia Guzmán, who was deliveringthe welcome remarks at an event forrice researchers. It was the openingsession of the technical commieemeeting and rice selection workshopfor the tropics, held by the LatinAmerican Fund for Irrigated Rice(FLAR) with representatives of itsmember organizations, at Colombia’sNational Rice Growers’ Federation(Fedearroz) in Villavicencio. Alongwith Ms. Tupa and Ms. Guzmán,

 

plant breeders and researchers fromall over Latin America came in searchof the best rice varieties for furthertesting in their home countries.

The making of a Colombiancomeback Addressing an audience of morethan 50 scientists, Ms. Guzmánemphasized the importance ofimproved production technologies,easier access to credit for farmers, andmore training for technicians. Shespoke with the condence that her 25years of work in the rice sector havegiven her and with the responsibilitythat comes with being the technicalmanager for Colombia’s principal ricegrowers’ association.

Ms. Guzmán’s words wereclear and convincing. After thesession, she retired to a provisionaloce; her permanent workplaceis in Bogotá, 115 kilometers fromVillavicencio. She answered emails,accepted invitations to give morepresentations, arranged a meetingwith her boss, and organized visitsto various Fedearroz experimentstations and farmers’ elds for follow-up on her organization’s new agshipinitiative—Amtec—the Spanishacronym for a name that means“massive technology adoption.”

Ms. Guzmán studied agronomyat the University of Tolima andearned her master’s degree inagricultural science, with emphasison plant pathology, from the NationalUniversity. Her work with Fedearrozstarted in 1989. For 15 years, her job

 A tale of two womenleading rice revolutionsin Latin Americaby Adriana Varón Molina

Rice Today January-March 2015

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13Rice Today January-March 2015

was to combat disease problemsthrough research and technologytransfer. Later, she took up thechallenge of managing a business,Central de Granos de Coclé (CocléGrain Central), in Panama. But, like“the good child” of a traditionalColombian saying, Patricia eventuallycame home, returning to Fedearrozin January 2011 as technical manager,the rst woman to occupy this post inthe organization’s 70-year history.

Ms. Guzmán readily admitsthat these have been tough times.Over the past 5 years, Colombia’saverage rice yield has dropped by 1ton per hectare, from 6.2 to 5.3 tons(although 2014 saw a slight increasein productivity). Part of the problemis the rice sector’s vulnerability to theeects of climate change.

In the face of this challenge,Ms. Guzmán has shown leadership,visiting other rice-producingcountries, building allianceswith international and nationalorganizations, and working closelywith the Colombian government tond ways of lowering production costsand raising yields on around 438,000hectares sown to rice in this country.

“Our goal is to rst achievenational self-suciency in rice andthen within 8 years be ready topenetrate international markets,”said Ms. Guzmán. To this end, she’llkeep working with Colombia’s ricegrowers in their elds, because “that’swhere the problems are and also thesolutions.”

Breathing new life into a Bolivianrice growers’ associationThe technical discussions in Villa-vicencio lasted 2 days giving riceresearchers a good overview of recentadvances in genetic improvement forLatin America. Over the next 3 daystheory gave way to practice as theSanta Rosa experiment station, wherethe workshop was held, became anepicenter for the selection of elite ricelines.

That’s when Ms. Tupa came tolife. She didn’t care anymore aboutthe 30-degree heat; as the sky cleared,she immersed herself in the rice eldsand began feeling right at home.

Accompanied by her colleague James Cabrera, Ms. Tupa made therounds of the experimental plots. Hermission: to identify rice varieties thatmight give good results on Boliviansoil. Like Ms. Guzmán, she went aboutthis task with the assurance gainedfrom 25 years of working in the ricesector and also with the responsibilitythat comes with leading Bolivia’s mostimportant rice growers’ organization,the National Association of RiceCooperatives (Fenca).

Before taking up her current post,and while still working in support ofFenca’s technical management, Ms.Tupa was invited to visit South Korea.During her 21-day trip, she had aclose-up look at the extraordinaryexperience of Korean rice growers.This encouraged her to accept theoer of a new leadership role in herown country’s struggling rice sector.

The immediate challenge wasgeing the nearly extinct association back on its feet. The year 2012 wasthe most dicult in Fenca’s 50-yearhistory. Of the 60 cooperatives thatoriginally made up the association,only 10 remained. In a race againsttime, Ms. Tupa began to organizeevents; to build strategic allianceswith public and private sectororganizations, both locally and abroad;and to show Fenca members, bothformer ones and those remaining,that the association was by no meansa lost cause. One of her main projects,as the rst woman to lead Fenca, is totrain member cooperatives in the sixsteps that make up FLAR’s initiativeon improved crop management forhigher yields.

“The rice sector had to eithertransform itself or die,” says Ms.Tupa, who was born in the city ofPotosí but grew up in Santa Cruzde la Sierra, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture atthe Bolivian Evangelical University.“We couldn’t keep on making thesame mistakes. We had to learn moreabout new technology for precisioncrop management, about options forhelping farmers obtain credit, andabout working as a team to moveahead.”

Ms. Tupa inherited her commit-ment to rice production from herparents; farming is in her blood.That’s why, in addition to leadingFenca, she also nds time to tend toher own 50-hectare farm, which shesows to upland rice. Her husband andtwo small children claim their shareof her time as well. But she’ll keepworking to regain credibility andcondence among the cooperativesthat have said goodbye to Fenca.

Delivering on the promise ofwomen’s leadershipThese are the challenges andachievements of Patricia Guzmánand Salomé Tupa. While living andworking on distant lands, they areunited by a shared commitment:to deliver on the promise ofwomen’s hard-won leadership inLatin America’s traditionally male-dominated rice sector.

 Ms. Varón Molina is communicationscoordinator for Latin America and theCaribbean at CIAT.

SALOMÉ TUPA selecting elite rice linesat the Santa Rosa experiment stationin Villavicencio, Colombia.

PATRICIA GUZMAN with CIAT researcherSylvain Delerce examining rice diseasesymptoms at Monteria, Colombia.

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