Com mais produtores apoiados, Aliança Guaraná de Maués ajuda a incrementar renda de agricultores
Supporting the organization of farmers who depend on growing guaraná for a living has proved to be important to keep empowering these families
Text by Henrique Saunier
Translated by Felipe Sá
Photo by Reinaldo Brosler
The actions of support and appreciation of family agriculture by the Maués Guaraná Alliance (Aliança Guaraná de Maués or AGM, in Portuguese) have already yielded important achievements to producers in the municipality, known worldwide as the Land of Guaraná. Thanks to this work supporting Ambev, from 2018 to 2019, it was possible to increase from 15 tons to 62.3 tons of guaraná purchased by the manufacturer directly from family farmers in Maués.
In this new stage, Idesam’s mission is to monitor traceability with the groups that carried out direct sales to Ambev, which represented, in the last harvest, an increase of up to 45% in the income of these families. The number of groups supported already indicates an evolution when compared to the first stage of the Alliance’s activities, when the work started with just one producers’ association (currently there are more than eight groups involved).
“We made this commitment to Ambev to always improve the relationship with family farmers, supporting the appreciation and traceability of the product, at the same time that we improve the economy of the municipality and ensure that the best value is paid for guaraná to the farmers”, says Ramom Morato, Idesam’s coordinator of sustainable rural production.
Supporting the organization of farmers that depend on growing guaraná for a living has proved to be important to keep empowering these families that often find themselves ‘forced’ to sell their production to middlemen, who don’t always pay a fair price.
In addition to this increase in direct sales to Ambev, other achievements of the Alliance include the training of young farmers in exchanges, congresses and courses in other regions, the implementation of demonstrative units of agroforestry guaraná and the organic transition of the guaranazal (guaraná crop), progress in the creation of a single rule book for farmers from Maués, promoting control and traceability besides supporting the Geographic Identification Seal to guarantee the origin of the product.
José Cristo de Oliveira is one of the producers being supported and he sees the Guaraná Alliance as progress for the municipality. “It is a way of encouraging local producers to develop their work in the best possible way. Each activity offered by the Alliance makes us feel motivated and seek further knowledge, whether with a training course or even helping our fellow producer”, he highlighted.
Sociocultural support
Strengthening the guaraná production chain also involves the appreciation of the ancient culture around the fruit’s cultivation, something that has always influenced the artistic manifestations in the municipality. With this in mind, the Alliance has developed over the years several actions dedicated to the masters of knowledge and, especially, to young people, who hold the future of this sector of Maués’ economy in their hands.
These activities include workshops to teach young people to make musical instruments (Luthier Ricardo Macedo Project), donating children’s kimonos for competition (Social Dojô Project), clothes and materials to strengthen cultural groups, art and graffiti workshops with children, midwives and women’s health circuits and black and indigenous awareness gatherings. All of this represented over 200 children and young people reached by philanthropic actions in the municipality.
When it comes to education, the Maués Guaraná Alliance supported the training of teachers considering the Pedagogical Political Plan of the Schools of the Indigenous Land Andirá-Marau with workshops and production of teaching material that better reflect the local reality for early childhood schools.
About the Maués Guaraná Alliance
The Maués Guaraná Alliance was created in October 2017 with the mission of providing collective training and debate environments for proposing and executing actions with social and government participation related to guaraná and other important themes. With a holistic vision, especially for education, culture and sustainable agriculture, the AGM is also based on respect for local socio-biodiversity and strengthening the appreciation for regional culture and traditions.
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