The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Rural Women Find Success in
Sweet Sustainable Business
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

One year after starting, an effort by Universidad Nacional (UNA) to make business women out of housewives in a rural part of Costa Rica has been labeled a sweet success.

Their business is beekeeping and the university's Center for Tropical Beekeeping Research (CINAT) has shown them how to supplement their struggling finances by producing honey.

“We have left the laboratories and our research is being put to use in communities that really need it,” said Luis Sánchez, of the research center. “These are the seeds of the transfer of technology.”

Under the program, 134 people, including 76 women, from 11 organizations in Puriscal, southwest of the Central Valley, and Turrubares, near the central Pacific coast, have been trained in beekeeping.

The goal is to bring a sustainable industry to women in communities that have suffered from poverty and low employment, according to Rafael Calderón, of CINAT.

“At times employment here is very low, so it is great we can help our husbands a little bit,” said Yolanda Moreira, president of the San Gabriel Apiculture Association, one of the organizations participating in the UNA program.

Agriculture is the main source of employment for the community, Moreira said.

“The men can plant all the crops they want, but then to harvest the crops costs a lot of money and (the money) they get for the crops is so little, it's not worth it. So they just let them go to waste,” she said.

The low morale in the community brought skepticism to the project at first.

“Lots of people in the town said this project wouldn't work – there are always negative people – so we are very proud that it has worked so well,” Moreira said. “Our children, our spouses have seen what we have done.”

Silvia Pérez said her children, ages 4 and 8, sometimes ask her not to go to work.

“But I tell them I want to go. What am I going to do, stay in the house and not do anything?” she said.

The demands and schedule of beekeeping have allowed Pérez to balance her role as a mother with those of a businesswoman, she said. It is a part-time job, although the hours depend on the time of year. Harvest season, from January to April, requires more work.

It is important for the program's participants to think of it as not just their job, but as their business, Calderón said.

In addition to training in business management, CINAT has trained the participants in hive management, apiculture administration, control of disease and parasites, improvement of queen bees, pollination, and feeding.

Since the initial training, CINAT officials also make regular visits to the communities to evaluate progress, help with issues and problems and offer reinforcement workshops.

In the first year, production has been limited, although it has surpassed goals. The organizations have produced honey that is sold in area pulperías and through the university.

Hopes are high with the harvest approaching in January, and the organizations plan to meet this week to discuss forming a cooperative to increase distribution and sales of their products.