1. Business Description
AMIR is a grassroots women's association, formally established in 2004, belonging to 36 groups, with 15 people in 24 communities, from which a representative member is elected every 2 years for the board of directors, which changes the membership of its members every year. Currently they have 650 members, a processing plant and offices. All families have diversified plots, and they exchange food between communities when there is not enough on the market. The main activity of the association is the processing plant, which depends mainly on the processing and sale of beans.
AMIR aims to demonstrate that sustainable production is possible, to recover seeds and soils and to demonstrate through practice that these practices are adopted by other neighbors who work the land in a traditional way. This may be its greatest challenge. Food security and human rights are very important to AMIR, since the cultural issue of land ownership and access to credit are the most important limitations. AMIR constantly works on the issues of promotion, organization and training of members and dedicates efforts to establishing alliances with other organizations, in order to generate development proposals to meet the needs of members and in favor of the environment, such as reforestation campaigns and organic production. The Association supports other training activities in organic and biointensive production, food security, donation of agricultural kits, seeds and agricultural inputs, purchase of products for processing into beans. It is also dedicated to developing the knowledge of members on issues of sustainable agricultural production, fruit and vegetable processing, food security and human rights. As a business, it is in a transitional stage, since not all plant production is organic, agroecological or related.
2. Products
The AMIR agribusiness includes forest harvesting (seasonal mushrooms and wild blackberries), production of seasonal fruit sweets;jams (containing pieces of fruit) and jellies (strawberry, peach, guava, blackberry); vPotato, blackberry, strawberry, peach, pink guava and guayabilla, jaboticaba, nance, orange and grape varieties;Stewed and ground rijoles, frozen; froutes in syrup (peach); Potato chips.
3. Production systems
The plots are collective, and have a forest nursery to donate plants to members and the community, to restore water sources and other areas. All members have diversified plots and rotate crops. They also use solar energy (solar dryers for beans), drip irrigation. They carry out the cultivationclassification of agrochemical containers, and holes are made to deposit these packages of chemical inputs to avoid contamination. They preserve forests where there is a water source and loading area.
4. Main challenges
The cultural issue of land ownership and access to credit are among the most important limitations. There is also the problem associated with the price of the product, since there are few consumers of organic products, which leads to the price being quite similar in the market to products produced conventionally.
