Building alternatives to improve the quality of life in the communities of southern Tolima.

The participants expressed that the transition should be directed towards alternative energies as an engine of development but under another understanding of it, which should be contextual, so that in this case they are committed to: reducing the consumption of external products, localized production, the use of ancestral biotechnology (use of leguminous plants, mycorrhizae, fermentation of cachaco plantain) that articulates with nature, fair and local trade, reuse of elements that were previously discarded such as manure, water crops, community savings, recovery of seeds, creole breeds, knowledge associated with these elements and the promotion of local research on this type of resources. 

The transition is based on solar energy production in all its components, in which women participate by replicating the knowledge at regional and national level, through training and implementation of the Creole hen model. 

Some of the issues that led people to make the decision to implement this experience were:

1. Instability and cost of electricity
2. Water scarcity 
3. Marketing 
4. Resistance of communities to organize 
5. Contaminated food arriving from elsewhere 
6. Public policy that approves the purchase of production packages (hens and concentrates).
7.  Transgenic seeds
8. High concentrate costs 
9. Waste of organic waste 
10. Low-income families 
11. Pest diseases in hens 
12. High transportation costs 
13. Poor access roads to market

Technical characteristics of the proposal

• Seeds: Creole chicken breeds, traditional knowledge and local forage.
• Technologies: single-phase grinder with 2 Hp motor, 2 HP pelletizer, handmade 12 gauge plastic dryer-dehydrator 3mx1mx2m and handmade incubator with 6 bulbs of 25 w, 6 fans (small) with a capacity of 450 eggs. Organizations: Network of women producers, Indigenous Cabildo, Agroecological School “Manuel Quintín Lame”.

Productive, community, environmental, or economic processes or activities that were positively impacted by the implementation of the community experience of TEJ.

It is associated with the training processes of the Agroecological and Territorial School “Manuel Quintín Lame”, the local processes of victims in Natagaima, the women’s roundtable, the Coosaviunidos Cooperative, Fondo Rotatorio del sur del Tolima (Focost), family businesses and the fabric of southern Tolima.

Women’s participation in the TEJ community experience

The experience takes place in an indigenous territory hit by the armed conflict, where women took the initiative to undertake new processes and create new opportunities to rebuild. Therefore, the community experience is led by indigenous women and victims who demand rights. 

Chickens have historically been associated with the female world, are part of the family economy and are a great support for food sovereignty. This practice (raising chickens) has been violated, displaced and exterminated by the new technological packages, in which the production of chemically controlled chickens and hens is high.

Impact of the community experience of TEJ on public policy

The Municipal Development Plan “Por Amor a Natagaima 2020-2023” (For the Love of Natagaima 2020-2023) was influenced, where the goal of “Implementing projects containing renewable energy for the villages” was included in the Strategic Axis 2: Natagaima with Productivity and Competitiveness for Economic Development. It also impacted the goal of “Implementing food sovereignty projects to generate socioeconomic development to mitigate the causes of poverty in the municipality of Natagaima”; proposals of the municipal social organizations of which we are part.