Family farming blossoms in the mountains of Venezuela
Eliana is part of a group of 387 families from Lara state, beneficiaries of an FAO project aimed at increasing the production of family agriculture.
The project diversified the crops grown, introducing more vegetables into the mix and therefore into diets. ©FAO/Rohnal Valderrey
To get to and from Caspo you can either take a motorbike or walk. Those are the two main modes of transportation used by the residents of this small mountain town in the central-western region of Venezuela. A dirt road that runs through the mountains is the only connection between this remote farming town and the next largest city, Sanare, about 20 kilometres away. Coffee plants are plentiful here, but houses are very distant.
It is in this town in Lara state, where Eliana Alvarado lives, with her husband Pablo Márquez, and their two sons, Santiago, who is seven, and Moisés, who is four.
Eliana has just turned 30. She is in the middle of a college degree, aspiring to be a teacher, but she has worked in agriculture since she was young.
“Pablo and I sow our land to feed our family. We also sell some of our produce or barter with the neighbours. Here in Caspo, we have worked with coffee for a long time, but that is a harvest that occurs only once a year. That's why we also have our small parcel of land sown with other crops,” she explains.
Eliana and her family used to rely on the sale of food from their garden and on income from picking other people's crops. This only covered about 50 percent of their needs, however, and her family would rely on the government for the rest. They used all of their money just to cover their most basic necessities, principally food.