Rosa Dias, agroecological farmers at Quinta da Fornalha, co-founder of the Agroecological Association Al-Bio – Castro Marim, Vila Real de Santo António, Faro

Rosa Dias didn’t originally plan to become a farmer. She didn’t dream about it or study for it, but her deep family and emotional ties to the land ultimately led her there. Her father, an organic farmer for over 30 years, faced significant struggles. Initially, the market for organic produce was underdeveloped, and later, he couldn’t compete with imported dried figs from Turkey or almonds from the United States after EU trade agreements in the 2000s.

In 2008, amidst the economic crisis, Rosa took on the challenge of preserving her family’s legacy, a heritage passed down since the 1755 earthquake. She refused to be mortgaged or to turn the farm “into a resort, a golf course, a citrus grove, an avocado plantation or large raspberry greenhouses”, common solutions in the Algarve. For her, these options were unthinkable.

As a young mother and recent graduate, Rosa became a farmer, leveraging one of the last grants for young farmers that didn’t require heavy capital investment. She also attended a Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme promoted by the Commission for Gender Equality, which she describes as “structurally well done” and which included consultancy and a prize if she managed to keep the company active and functioning for two years.

Quinta da Fornalha, Rosa’s farm, spans over 30 hectares, including 9 hectares of carob trees, 5 hectares each of pine forest, fig orchards, and orange groves, along with smaller areas of olive trees and a lake. “It’s a very diverse system,” she says. Exporting fresh figs has been a cornerstone of her farm’s income for the past 13 years. In addition, she has diversified into rural tourism with a restaurant and accommodation units, and she processes food products from lower-quality raw materials that wouldn’t sell well otherwise. “I realised that I couldn’t depend exclusively on a single business model.”

Her agroecological approach stems naturally from her family’s practices. Rosa quickly identified that bare soil worsened erosion, reduced yields, and shortened tree lifespans. Her vision is to transform the farm into a “thick forest,” where the tree canopy shades the soil, fostering organic matter accumulation and protecting it during the harsh summer months.

Starting as a young farmer wasn’t easy. She entered a male-dominated sector where her presence surprised many. She faced logistical challenges early on without cold storage or a loading bay for her fresh figs. Despite this, Rosa embraced the difficulties, attributing her resilience to her life experience as a woman. Even so, “there have been times when people come to the farm asking, ‘Where’s the man?’”, she recalls.

Rosa believes her perspective as a woman has shaped her approach to farming. Unlike a purely economic, profit-driven view, she sees the system as a complex, interconnected whole. “Some parts may not be highly profitable on their own, but they support and enhance the system overall.” For her, this stems from women’s role in nurturing interdependent life stages—caring for babies, the elderly, and others who rely on a supportive social network. She believes this sensibility coming from women’s caring experiences translates into agroecological farming, which prioritises balance and sustainability over short-term gains.

Her commitment to supporting small-scale farmers led her to co-found Al-Bio Associação Agroecológica, a largely female-led organisation. The association focuses on supporting small-scale farmers in marketing their products, provides training and technical assistance in agroecology, and, especially, advocates for agricultural policies that recognise the needs of small-scale producers. Their work became increasingly urgent when the Ministry of Agriculture and other public institutions began sidelining small agroecological farmers in organic farming support measures and local supply programs for public canteens under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Rosa frequently encounters resistance in policy discussions with public institutions, where she is often the only woman in the room. “Mansplaining” and dismissive attitudes toward her views and ideas are common. She attributes this either to prejudice or an incapacity to understand an agriculture made of care and love, not exclusively in an extractivist, profit-oriented logic.

She criticises the distortion of CAP policies in Portugal, describing how state decisions often fail to serve small farmers. She was particularly disheartened by the Ministry’s move to include integrated production under organic farming support measures, a step she views as undermining true organic practices.

To transform food systems, Rosa proposes several key policy measures:

• Raising awareness to challenge misconceptions and prejudices about organic farming.
• Creating Agrarian Centres to support farmers transitioning to organic methods and offer technical advice on pest and disease control.
• Investing in applied research on agroecology and regional crops like figs and carobs, and ensuring this knowledge reaches farmers.
• Modulating organic farming subsidies to reflect varying levels of agroecological complexity, rewarding those who adopt more sustainable practices.
• Providing training and mentorship programs for women in agriculture.
• Facilitating local food supply chains, such as enabling small farmers to supply public canteens and creating purchasing hubs for local produce.
• Implementing tax benefits for complex, labor-intensive agricultural systems that deliver greater environmental and social returns.