Partner Spotlight: Red Tsiri
Alliance Partners Join Forces to Create ‘Red Tsiri’ Cooperative of Women Tortilleras and Maize Farmers in Mexico
Maize tortillas are one of the oldest culinary elements of Mexican culture since pre-Hispanic times. With more than 90% of Mexicans consuming tortillas on a daily basis, there is a strong market for tortillas, particularly those that are handmade. Tortilleras, the women who make and sell tortillas, cook over open fires for more than 6 hours a day, using over 25 kg of fuelwood. This is often the primary income generating activity for indigenous women in poor and marginalized rural families.
Red Tsiri (maize in the Purhepecha language) is the fruit of a collaboration between the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Interdisciplinary Group for Appropriate Rural Technology (GIRA) with the objective of linking – without intermediaries – local maize farmers, makers of handmade tortillas, and conscious consumers.
Our collaboration started with the design and construction of the Patsari stove, which was adapted specifically for tortilleras in 2008, allowing indigenous women to cook traditional tortillas while saving fuelwood, reducing indoor air pollution, and improving women’s economic profitability and quality of life. By the year 2012, almost all handmade tortilla workers in the Patzcuaro region of Mexico were using Patsari-t stoves. While the cooking technique hasn’t changed since pre-Hispanic times, the improved cookstove has substantially changed their quality of life. Wood consumption has been reduced by 60%, leading to a reduction in firewood costs, particularly in areas where forests are lacking, as well as an increase in family income in comparison to tortilla makers who did not use a Patsari-t stove. Women's health has also improved and tortilleras in general are perceived to have a substantial improvement in quality of life.
During the course of our partnership, researchers from UNAM realized that the majority of the handmade tortillas were made using native maize. As a result, representatives from both organizations started to work with a group of farmers growing native organic maize and tortilleras who were using efficient Patsari-t stoves. Together, we have created the Red Tsiri cooperative and built a niche market for these “ecological” and traditionally made tortillas. The cooperative brings handmade tortillas (and other maize products) to urban consumers. To date, we have connected more than 15 women and 6 farmers, bringing their products to diverse selling points including restaurants, shops, universities, and schools in the city of Morelia, as well as fairs all over Michoacán State and across Mexico.
Today, Red Tsiri is an important reference for showing that clean cookstoves can be successfully adopted, while also serving as a means of economic and environmental sustainability in rural communities. Both GIRA and UNAM are active Alliance partners and have benefited from Alliance support of a Regional Testing and Knowledge Center in Mexico, enabling us to better understand the process of stove adoption and sustained use, as well as to estimate the impacts of fuelwood harvesting. By helping GIRA and UNAM understand the impacts of stove use and adoption, the partnership with the Alliance has enabled Red Tsiri to rigorously assess and document the benefits accrued by local women and thus to generate additional support from funders.
For more information visit https://www.oikos.unam.mx/CIEco/ or https://www.gira.org.mx/.