URUGUAY: Pulling Small Dairy Farmers Out of Poverty

• by Dino Cappelli (durazno, uruguay)
• Wednesday, February 10, 2010
• Inter Press Service

Her neighbour also produces milk, on the smallest scale that exists in the central part of this small South American country wedged between Brazil and Argentina.

Pérez has just 10 dairy cows, which produce a few dozen litres of milk a day, bringing in a small income when she sells it on the outskirts of the city of Durazno, located 183 km north of the capital, Montevideo. She lives on her small farm or 'chacra' with her husband and two children, who are in primary school.

Her family's way of life is shared by just over 200 other small-scale dairy farmers in the departments (provinces) of Durazno, Florida and Flores in Uruguay's central region, most of whom have no more than two hectares of land.

Oscar Moyá is another 'crudero', the term used for the small-scale farmers who sell raw milk ('leche cruda') directly to customers in towns and cities. He has plied his trade since he was a boy, like his brother and nephew. They all sell their milk in Sarandí Grande, the second largest town in the department of Florida.

'We just scrape by,' he says, 'but at least we can survive on what we earn.' The raw milk is diluted with water to increase volume, in proportions that sometimes lead to jokes. 'Put a little less water in, man, this milk is really thin,' his customers sometimes say.

The milk sold by the 'cruderos', above and beyond any possible nutritional properties, is cheaper, at 23 cents a litre compared to 30.4 cents a litre for pasteurised milk.

Subsistence dairy farming dates back centuries in Uruguay, the country with the highest number of cattle per capita in the world: 3.8. There are approximately 10 million cattle and more than 15 million sheep in this country, which has a total population of 3.3 million, 93 percent of which is urban.

But now, the business sector and government institutions have come together to provide solutions aimed at drawing small-scale dairy farmers into the economy of scale.

In Uruguay, where the economy is driven by agriculture, tourism and banking, beef and wool are leading exports. But until it began to transition into a prosperous export industry 15 years ago, the dairy sector focused on supplying the domestic market.

That newfound prosperity, however, has not trickled down to rural families who continue to eke out a living on their small dairy farms.

Two years ago, Mauber Olveira, director of development in the Durazno city government, and former mayor Carmelo Vidalín were the driving forces behind one of the alliances to integrate the 'cruderos' into the modern milk processing industry.

The formula, Olveira told IPS, was to get Nutrísima, a Uruguayan dairy company, to build a plant in the city of Durazno, which has a population of 35,000 and is the capital of the department of the same name.

The plant buys raw milk from local farmers, pasteurises it and sells it to supermarkets and other buyers.

The project included financial aid agreements to enable dairy farmers to purchase equipment and livestock to boost production.

The assistance - totaling more than 100,000 dollars - forms part of an agreement between the Dirección de Proyectos de Desarrollo (development projects office), which answers to the president's office, and Nutrísima.

The manager of the company in Durazno, Carlos Kuster, explained that the agreement translates into 'financial support of around 2,000 dollars per farmer, aimed at ensuring the purchase of a freezer.'

He also said 'it is quite feasible that equipment will be imported to give small-scale farmers the possibility to collect two days' worth of milk and deliver it every other day to the plant, thus significantly reducing transportation costs.'

Kuster said the aid also 'makes it possible for farmers to purchase cattle and feed, which is the best use for financial assistance under the current circumstances.'

The plant also buys milk from farmers from the neighbouring department of Flores, the border of which is 40 km away.

So far, 12 farmers from the department of Flores have started selling their milk to the plant, after the installation of the bulk milk cooler.

'Once the farmers start selling their milk to a plant, they are no longer in the informal economy, and that has positive repercussions on the entire local production chain,' the government of Flores, which backs the initiative, said in a statement.

The project is helping small farmers overcome the poverty and marginalisation in which they were trapped due to their low output levels.

Claudio Piñeiro, director of development of the department of Durazno, explained to IPS that the project to eradicate sales of raw milk was aimed at 'creating a tool that would make it possible for small farmers to produce milk responsibly.'

Small dairy farmers, who in the past defended themselves by arguing that 'no one has died from drinking our raw milk,' are now part of a formal production chain that protects them and has opened the door to access to increased technology, credit and higher levels of production.

Claudia Jeannette Pérez, president of the association of former 'cruderos' from the areas surrounding the city of Durazno, explained that they used to sell raw milk, artisanal cheeses, eggs and vegetables 'door to door, in shops and in the local open air markets.'

Today, all that has changed.

They no longer live below the poverty line, and there are now proper hygiene conditions on their small farms, which must live up to certain standards in order to sell their milk to the pasteurisation plant.

Furthermore, they now have access to running water - essential to maintaining production levels and standards - and many also have electricity.

And while they continue to live in the impoverished outskirts of cities and towns, 'now we feel respected; we feel like we are part of society,' said another small dairy farmer.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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