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Empowering female farmers in Mexico

A Minnesota dairy producer says female farmers in Mexico need more tools to be successful.

Deb Vander Kooi of Worthington joined women representing U.S. commodity groups on a recent trip to Mexico as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between that country and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

She tells Brownfield most farmers in Mexico work with inadequate infrastructure, making marketing a challenge.

“They bring (their product) to the grocer and don’t get paid for 60 days or more.  They bring it to a café or restaurant, it’s the same type of thing.  And if they were to go to a broker, oftentimes they would lose 60 percent.”

More than 70 percent of Mexican farmers are women, and Vander Kooi says government officials admitted during the trip that agriculture is being neglected.

One of the primary objectives of the MOU is to promote the exchange of information and best practices to foster gender equity while empowering women to gain instruction and skill related to farm labor.