GUATEMALA - GUARDIANS OF TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE

Since pre-Columbian times, indigenous women have been at the center of cultural custodianship and connection with the land: they select seeds, recognize climate cycles, and preserve sustainable agricultural practices, thus becoming guardians of ancestral agricultural knowledge, passing it down from generation to generation. The role of indigenous Guatemalan women in the coffee sector is fundamental, historical, and essential, although it is still marked by structural inequalities. Indigenous women perform much of the manual labor that supports the coffee supply chain, especially in coffee-growing regions like Alta Verapaz. However, many of them often perform harder and less recognized tasks in the coffee production process. In this context, IILA, in collaboration with the Asociación Nacional del Café de Guatemala – ANACAFÉ, with which it has recently signed an Agreement, Lavazza Foundation and the Verdad y Vida Association, plans to carry out next February a training activity on roasting for the benefit of women coffee producers in the Department of Alta Verapaz. The initiative is part of the IILA project "Entrepreneurial training in Latin America with a gender approach", funded by Italian Cooperation, with the aim of promoting gender equity in the sector and more inclusive and sustainable business models. The training aims to train trainers, so that the trained women can in turn train other women in their communities, thus generating a multiplier effect.