Today, in the Aula Magna of the Physics and Mathematics sections at the University of La Laguna, the subject is the countryside. The conference motto is “Sembrando Futuro: Mujer, Ciencia y Territorio”. You can attend in person or follow online, with registration through the link the university has published.
It is organised by the Cátedra de Agroturismo y Enoturismo de Canarias, a joint body of the Canarian agrifood quality institute (ICCA) and the ULL, together with the university’s department of agricultural engineering and rural environment. The Canarian Federation of Municipalities (FECAM) provides institutional backing, and the event is part of the Agenda Canaria 2030. Noelia Cruz Pérez coordinates.
Janira Gutiérrez Peraza, president of the ICIA, the regional agricultural research institute, gives the opening lecture, followed by a dialogue with Anabel Calderín Castro of the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. A round table on governance, science and territory follows, with the mayor of San Sebastián de La Gomera, Angélica Belén Padilla Herrera, an ICIA researcher, a representative of the Cabildo de Tenerife and a voice from Fademur Canarias, the rural women’s association.
The programme isn’t only institutional. Six doctoral students present research on women, rural life and the agrifood industry. In the afternoon three entrepreneurs speak: Natalia Molina Concepción with Floresiendom in Tegueste; Paula Jarque Azañedo with a goat farm in Ourense; and Laura Yulissa Buitrago Gómez with Catilífero SAS in Colombia. Three very different experiences put in one room.
The day closes with a reading of the “Carta de las Islas Canarias por la Mujer Rural” and the prizes: the ULL’s “Agricultora de Canarias”, the Rural Women’s Day recognitions and a prize for the best scientific communication.
At the 8 October launch at the regional agriculture department in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, FECAM’s rural development and fisheries committee chair, Vicente Rodríguez Lorenzo, said that “Los 88 municipios canarios tienen una realidad rural que debemos atender”. Vice-rector Isabel Karely León Pérez and regional minister Narvay Quintero were also there.
The sources I consulted give no expected attendance and no figure on women’s presence in the Canarian primary sector. That would be the most useful addition, but I haven’t found it and won’t invent it. What is known is the design of the event: bringing research, town halls and people who work the land or raise livestock into one day, and closing with a document signed from the islands.
