The prickly pear cactus is bringing local subsistence farmers in the northern Argentine province of Chaco a new source of income. “The women who took the course are now making a living from this,” Marta Maldonado, the secretary of the “Siempre Unidos Minifundios de Corzuela” (smallholders of Corzuela united) association, which was formally registered in 2011, told IPS.
“The prickly pear is the most common plant around here. In the project we set up 20 prickly pear plantations,” she said.
Local farmers work one to four hectares in this settlement in the rural municipality of Corzuela in west-central Chaco, whose 10,000 inhabitants are spread around small settlements and villages.
The initiative, which has benefited 20 families, made up of 39 women, 35 men and four children, has been implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through the U.N. Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Small Grants Programme (SGP).
In the region where Corzuela is located, “there are periods of severe drought and fruit orchards require a lot of water. The prickly pear is a cactus that does not need water,” said Gabriela Faggi with the National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA).
The association, whose work is mainly done by women, also sells its products at local and provincial markets. And although prickly pear fruit is their star product, when it is not in season, they also make jam and other preserves using papaya or pumpkin.
