Women Farmers Programme: workshops and financing

It is a programme inside the Department of Agriculture with four concrete duties toward women farmers: give them seminars every year, facilitate financing for their projects, study their particular needs, and count them — because the Act requires breaking down by gender the statistics the Department is already obliged to compile. It is worth saying up front what it is not: it is not a cheque or an aid you apply for with a form. It is an agency duty to offer and coordinate.

The Programme is aimed at “bona fide” women farmers, and that phrase has a strict definition that decides who is in. Article 2(c) refers to the Agricultural Tax Incentives Act (Act 225-1995) and requires two things at once: holding a current certification issued by the Secretary of Agriculture certifying that during that year you engaged in an activity qualifying as an agricultural business, and deriving fifty per cent (50%) or more of your gross income from an agricultural business as operator, owner or lessee, as shown on your income tax return. That certification is the first step, not this programme. Before ruling yourself out, look at the list of what the Act counts as an agricultural business: it is wider than people think and includes mariculture, commercial fishing and aquaculture; the commercial production of ornamental flowers, plants and grasses for the local and export market; hydroponic vegetable growing, including the sheds and equipment; and packing or grading operations when they form part of the same agricultural business.

• Hold a current certification issued by the Secretary of Agriculture certifying that during that year she engaged in an activity qualifying as an agricultural business.Verified against the official source
• Derive fifty per cent (50%) or more of gross income from an agricultural business as operator, owner or lessee, as shown on the income tax return.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: First, the bona fide farmer certification

   It is the entry door and cannot be skipped: all of Article 3 speaks of “bona fide women farmers.” The Article 2(c) definition asks two things together. One: a current certification from the Secretary of Agriculture that in that year you engaged in an activity qualifying as an agricultural business. Two: deriving fifty per cent or more of your gross income from that agricultural business as operator, owner or lessee, “as shown on her income tax return.” Note that last phrase: the proof the Act names is your tax return. That certification is requested at the Department of Agriculture and is a separate step from this programme.

2. 2

   Step 2: Look closely at the list before ruling yourself out

   Many women who do qualify think they do not, because they take “agricultural business” to mean only planting. Article 2(d) lists twelve items, and these are the ones that surprise most: mariculture, commercial fishing and aquaculture; the commercial production of ornamental flowers, plants and grasses for the local and export market — not including landscapers’ professional services; hydroponic vegetable growing, “the sheds and other equipment used for these purposes”; raising animals for meat, milk and eggs; and operations dedicated to packing, canning or grading agricultural products grown in Puerto Rico “that form part of the same agricultural business.” Note the proviso on that last one: operations that are exclusively packing, canning or grading “do not in themselves constitute an agricultural business.”

3. 3

   Step 3: The seminars: annual, and mandatory for the agency

   The Programme’s first duty, in Article 3(1), is to “offer annually seminars and workshops aimed specifically at women farmers in the areas of marketing, production and quality aspects, safety and agricultural business administration.” Agriculture does not give them alone: the Act builds them on cooperation agreements between the state Department of Agriculture, the federal Department of Agriculture, the College of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico and the Department of Labour’s Administration for the Training of Future Entrepreneurs and Workers. If you are looking for the calendar, those are the four doors to ask at.

4. 4

   Step 4: The financing: what it says exactly, and what it does not

   Article 3(2) requires “facilitating, through agreements between the Economic Development Bank of Puerto Rico, the Department of Labour and Human Resources, the state Department of Agriculture and the federal Department of Agriculture, the financing of agricultural projects promoted by women, as well as the granting of incentives and aid.” Read it carefully and you will see where the limit is: the verb is “facilitate,” and the vehicle is inter-agency agreements. The Act sets no amount, creates no right to be lent to, sets no deadline and provides no complaint if you are told no. We tell you this plainly because it is better to know before counting on the money.

5. 5

   Step 5: The part that makes your work visible

   Two duties that look bureaucratic and are not. Article 3(3) requires promoting research and studies “on the particular needs of women farmers” with the collaboration of the College of Agricultural Sciences. And Article 3(4) requires documenting women’s advances in the agricultural field, with a concrete consequence: “the statistics the Department of Agriculture is obliged to compile shall be broken down by gender.” That is what turns “there are many women farmers” into a number that can be cited. In addition, Article 3(5) obliges the Mayagüez College of Agricultural Sciences, the Department of Education and the Training Administration to report to Agriculture each year how many women farmers passed the trainings.

6. 6

   Step 6: How to hold them to it: the thirty-day report

   If you want to know whether the Programme is working, the Act gives you a document with a name and a date. Article 8: “The Department of Agriculture shall render a report to the Legislative Assembly, through the Secretariat of both bodies, detailing the status, costs, effectiveness and progress of the Women Farmers Programme, no later than thirty (30) days after the close of each fiscal year.” Status, costs, effectiveness and progress, every year, before both legislative bodies. And Article 4 places on the Secretary the duty to “make citizens aware of the efforts, contributions and aid” that exist for the woman farmer, so if nobody knows the programme exists, that too falls short of the text.

At the Department of Agriculture, where Article 3 attaches the Programme and where the bona fide farmer certification that is the entry door is requested. For the seminars, the Act also names three partners: the federal Department of Agriculture, the College of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico and the Department of Labour’s Administration for the Training of Future Entrepreneurs and Workers. For financing it names the Economic Development Bank of Puerto Rico. The Act publishes no form, calendar, office, address or telephone, and we do not invent them.

• Looking for the programme before the certification: the Programme is aimed at bona fide women farmers, and that certification is issued by the Secretary of Agriculture.
• Ruling yourself out for not planting: the definition of agricultural business includes commercial fishing, aquaculture, mariculture, hydroponics, ornamental flowers and animal raising.
• Believing packing or grading is enough: operations exclusively of packing, canning or grading do not in themselves constitute an agricultural business.
• Expecting a cheque: the Act requires facilitating financing through inter-agency agreements, not granting it directly.
• Looking for the seminars only at Agriculture: the Act builds them with federal Agriculture, the UPR College of Agricultural Sciences and the Department of Labour’s Training Administration.
• Not asking for the annual report: the Department must render it to the Legislative Assembly within thirty days of each fiscal year’s close, with status, costs, effectiveness and progress.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Agricultura de Puerto Rico

  Agricultura

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov