Méndez is a member of the Lenca indigenous community and was raised in a family of 13 siblings. The family earned their living by cultivating basic grains and vegetables. From a tender age, Eodora realized that family farmers could only aspire to a better quality of life through unity, cooperation, training and the search for direct sales opportunities.
Ir Arriba
Leaders Of Rurality
The IICA will recognize rural leaders in the Americas, under an initiative to pay tribute to men and women who are leaving their mark and making a difference in rural communities of our hemisphere.
This award pays tribute to those who are playing a unique dual role: guaranteeing food and nutritional security, by producing under all circumstances, as well as protecting the biodiversity of the planet. It will also emphasize their capacity to be positive role models in rural areas of the region.
Eodora Méndez, tireless advocate for the well-being of Honduran small farmers, is recognized as an IICA “Leader of Rurality”
José Muñoz, an educator and promoter of organic agriculture in northern Argentina, is awarded the title of “Leader of Rurality” by IICA
In recent years, Muñoz has become a promoter of organic agriculture, which he sees as a way to take advantage of the environmentally friendly practices and biological inputs that farmers already use.
Julio César Delgado, an ornamental flower grower from Colombia and promotor of sustainable production, is recognized by IICA as a “Leader of Rurality”
Delgado lives in the municipality of San Antonio del Tequendama, located 50 kilometers from the Colombian capital of Bogotá, where the nursery industry is an important economic activity with over 100 establishments.
Gustavo Rivas, the Guatemalan who has spent his entire life producing fresh foods and showcasing the value of family farmers, is recognized by IICA as a “Leader of Rurality”
He was co-founder of the National Basic Grains Association (ANAGRAB), which brings together both small- and large-scale producers of corn, beans, rice and other daily staples for the Guatemalan people.
Cooperative member Chito Quintero, a role model for peasant and indigenous communities in Panama, recognized by IICA as a “Leader of Rurality”
Quintero, who forms part of the Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous community, lost his mother at the age of 6 and had to work from an early age to support his siblings. He became a union leader shortly after becoming a banana farmer, and in 1991, he co-founded the banana cooperative Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples Bananera del Atlántico (COOBANA), which currently has 220 members and more than 600 workers.
IICA recognizes Brazilian Francisca Neri as a “Leader of Rurality” for inspiring young people and helping to revolutionize sheep and goat farming in a municipality in northeast Brazil
The daughter of rural farmers from Betânia, a municipality in the state of Piauí, Francisca is now 25 and is Secretary of Family Farming, a position from which she promotes associativism and cooperativism to improve income and quality of life for small-sized farmers.