Embrapa has held, in Maranhão, an annual event for a very special female audience: "Women Breakers of Babassu Coconut". This event aims to discuss actions of R&D and innovation themes, together with the "Women Breakers", to add value to the products and co-products of the babassu palm tree. The experience in performing this event, called BabaçuTec, permitted to gradually improve its format and audience. It ceased to be an event for the discussion of a strictly technical-scientific topic to become a space for dialogue and exchange of knowledge, to carry out planning, evaluation and validation of projects in agroextractivist communities.

Maranhão is the Brazilian state with the highest natural occurrence of the babassu palm (Attalea speciosa Mart, ex Spreng, Orbignya phalerata synonym). The main product extracted from this palm, which has the highest mercantile and industrial value, is the almond, from which a noble oil, rich in lauric acid, is obtained. The mesocarp flour is used to produce food. The epicarp (thick shell of the coconut) is for charcoal production (which, if burned slowly, produces smoke that can be used as an insect repellent). Residues of pressed almonds are intended for animal feed. Other products can be generated by means of research aimed at industrial application. However, this reality is far from the traditional communities, since it requires financial and technological investment beyond the reach of these communities. It is also in this respect that Embrapa has acted and made efforts to make contributions.

In the annual events called BabassuTech, technical teams dialogue directly with the "Women Breakers" and other agroextractivists. These dialogues also include representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations, public managers and entrepreneurs to discuss public policies, technological innovations, income generation and business, valorization and citizenship of women agroextractivists.

Starting in 2013, after two editions with technical and research topics, with a public formed by researchers, teachers, businessmen, technicians and students of higher level, BabassuTech changed its format. There was an important change in the institutional relationship of Embrapa with the organizations of babassu. Embrapa proposed a research project with the objective of performing the genetic pre-breeding of babassu and presented it to the Women Breakers of Babassu Coconut Associations as one of the possibilities to solve a problem that was being seen as purely technological. That research project was not completely accepted by social groups linked to the Babassu Intersectoral Movement and the pre-breeding part was removed from the project. This important intervention of the Women Breakers stimulated Embrapa in Maranhão to prioritize a methodological approach that increasingly values and guarantees the leading role of traditional communities in the definition of research, development, technology transfer and innovation projects.

Thus, in 2014, regional workshops were held instead of a single major central event to validate and prioritize the demands related to babassu identified in the 2013 event. The 40 agroextractive organizations were mobilized from all over the state of Maranhão. At the end of the workshops, Embrapa was in possession of a set of demands validated and prioritized by the organizations of Women Breakers which are guiding the new proposals of projects with babassu from different perspectives.

In the following editions, BabassuTech started to plan, evaluate and validate actions in execution and results, and became a forum mobilizing communities and other institutional partners. Thus, Embrapa is increasingly focused on results of projects related to the needs of the communities. Such projects are linked to several SDO and meet the real demands of people who have in babassu their main source of income and social reproduction.

For the annual events of BabassuTech, Embrapa received the support of human, logistical and financial resources from: (1) Special Secretariat of Family Agriculture and Agrarian Development, (2) Executive Board of Technology Transfer of Embrapa, (3) Well-Diverse Project (GEF / UNDP), (4) Secretariat of Family Agriculture of Maranhão, (5) Itapecuru-Mirim City Hall, (6) Agribusiness Institute of Maranhão. (7) 40 agroextractive organizations in the state of Maranhão. More directly, Embrapa has worked with organizations of babassu coconut breakers from two main Citizenship Territories: Territory of the Citizenship of the “Vale-do-Itapecuru” and Territory of the Citizenship of the “Medio-Mearim”.

At BabaçuTec held in 2017, an organizational structure was reached for use in the next editions of the event. The organizing committee was structured in the following functions: General Coordination, Coordination of Technical Programming, Coordination of Workshops, Financial Coordination and Logistics, Institutional Communication, Visual Production and Rapporteurship.

The General Coordination ensured the articulation of Embrapa with the institutional partners, establishing formal contacts and sending the official invitations for the participation of speakers and other guests, as well as providing support from the General Management to enable the event to be held. In addition, this coordination structured the proposal of programming of the event with the other members of the committee and articulated to the partners.

The Technical Programming Coordination made contact with speakers, participants and moderators. He made the adjustments in the schedule due to the impossibility of participation of some speakers or changes of schedules, ensuring that the substitutions were adequate to the theme of each day of the event. In the contacts with speakers and participants, this coordination identified demands that were passed on to the other members of the commission to be made feasible. In addition, it monitored the execution of the schedule on each of the days of the event.

The Workshops Coordination carried out training with the participants of the event. In this way, he was able to articulate with the instructors and define the program content and materials for the work. It enabled the maintenance of machines and equipment for the realization of the workshops. In addition, it articulated with institutional partners to make feasible some.

The Financial Coordination and Logistics monitored the execution of financial resources and the rendering of accounts. In addition, it maintained contacts with service providers, which includes expenses with food, lodging and consumables.

The Institutional Communication elaborated the material disseminated, before, during and after the event, in digital media internally (from Embrapa by Intranet) and at regional and national level. All the information made available in the lectures was systematized in the form of journalistic materials in the electronic media.

The Visual Production made banners, posters and standard visual presentation for the documents of divulging the information of the event.

The Rapporteurship prepared the reports of the event based on the recording and transcription of the lectures and debates. In addition, he systematized the written records of the members of the commission and also those made available by the speakers.

The format of the event consisted of lectures, round tables, discussion groups and discussions with the plenary. There were also workshops for the production of food and handicrafts with babassu and technical visits to a community agroindustry. Each event brought together between 60 and 100 people directly related to the theme of the value chain of babassu. The programming was developed and adjusted in partnership with local organizations.

At the end of each BabassuTech, proposals were made for Embrapa's activities, the activities of agroextractive organizations and the performance of other institutional partners. At the last event, the following proposals were sent to Embrapa:

1) Maintain the following macrothemes as a priority in the formulation of projects: babassu management, integral processing, facilitated coconut breakdown, crop management, integration of animals into production areas and value added to products and co-products.
2) Carry out the mapping of areas of occurrence of babassu with the participation of communities, having the possibility of elaborating a proposal that could be presented and made feasible by GEF / UNDP project.
3) Find more information on babassu biofuel to support the decision of the women breakers to join a community project on this topic.
4) Involve other groups of extractivists, producers and researchers working with babassu to expand knowledge about new products, such as groups working with babassu handicrafts.
5) Involve different professionals to develop new babassu products, whether food, cosmetics, cleaning products or others.

Some demands were directed to the Department of Family Agriculture of the state government of Maranhão, such as: (1) Provide the implantation of productive yards for women breakers, with the purpose of increasing family income; (2) Make public call for implementation and reform of babassu processing units; (3) Carry out training for women breakers to better understand the value chain of the product, stipulating targets for training women by 2020; (4) To encourage the extraction of oil and the generation of products of babassu by means of the implantation of small production nuclei, that could be called "babassu kit"; (5) Promote the certification of products coming from babassu; (6) Articulate with the Government of the State of Maranhão the guarantee of institutional purchases of products generated by coconut breakers, for government spaces, such as military barracks, for example; (7) Articulate a permanent discussion forum (either as a working group or as a "network" or as a technical chamber) to address specific issues of babassu, composed of institutions involved with coconut breakers, also seeking to integrate the various territories distant but having problems in common.

In relation to the disclosure of the event, electronic media reports were prepared and disseminated.

BabaçuTec has enabled the discussion and alignment of research and technology transfer actions to promote the extractive activity of babassu and its products, on a technical-scientific basis. Emphasis has been given to the more sustainable actions and with the potential of conducting business to generate income and improve the quality of life of rural populations. With the realization of BabassuTech, Embrapa consolidates in Maranhão the exercise of listening and seeking to meet, in a participatory way, the demands of the target audience for which its projects are developed.

BabaçuTec has been a space of valorization of those women, with a discussion about the public rules, technological innovations, generation of business opportunities for the extractive public. In addition, it has allowed to prospect, elaborate, divulge, evaluate and validate projects directly with the agro-extractive communities. Results of ongoing research were discussed and validated and the macro-themes of community interest were addressed. Other widely used uses of the classic products and co-products normally generated have been revealed.

Babassu is not yet an agricultural crop and, as an extractive product, has a value chain with many limitations. The main limitation is the manual process of coconut breakage, which is one of the most painful phases for women. Therefore, one of the demands is the development of a tool for individual use for breaking coconut (and not a machine for breaking a large volume of fruits). This project to develop this tool is already running at Embrapa.

Transportation, logistics and production scale are also limiting factors in the babassu extractivism chain. So there is a long way to go to get more information about the product at more sophisticated levels (biorefining, for example) and more comprehensive.

However, the realization of BabaçuTec with the presence of such a diverse audience and specific and additional lecturer in the various areas of activity was important for the demonstration of the agroextractivists as diverse possibilities of uses for the products and coproducts of the babassu. In this way, the possibilities of taking advantage of the expansion plan can be extended to the communities, which has changed their perspective of work and generation of financial income for products and co-products of babassu. However, one of the challenges that still persists is the involvement of the younger generations, whose discouragement to continue their activities with babassu is one of the obstacles that need alternatives for the continuity of work with babassu in traditional communities.

The babassu palm has been the basis of the livelihood of many families in their area of occurrence, mainly in Maranhão. The extractive communities struggle for the protection of adult palm trees, due to the tendency of elimination of the young plants, considered invasive in the pastures of the ranchers. Women breakers perform fruit picking and processing and organize themselves into social movements to ensure free access to babassu trees in both public and private areas.
It is necessary to offer differentiated attention to coconut breakers because they are poor and mostly black or mestizo women. Several of them have participated in courses and training to increase their self-esteem. Government actions are needed to promote income alternatives and foster the economic autonomy of these women. In some cases, there is a need to support the holding of family farm products. In other cases, there is a need to guarantee access to clarifications that promote the valuation of babassu by other segments of the state economy. There is a need to establish networks of protection for rural women, in addition to what has already occurred since the advent of the "Maria da Penha Law". However, many babassu coconut breakers still do not know their rights and do not have access to organizations that could meet their demands and facilitate access to public policies. There is a great challenge in motivating these women to be entrepreneurs and managers of individual and / or community businesses.

BabassuTech indicated that it is possible to articulate collective demands in projects and institutional actions, from spaces of dialogues with the main beneficiaries. However, other discussion forums are needed to enable the planning of actions between different organizations that operate in the territories of occurrence of babassu. Projects in progress at Embrapa include topics such as crop management, fruit breakage (high hardness), full utilization of babassu coconut, value aggregation and integration among extractive activities, agricultural crops and animal husbandry. Partnerships are needed to invest in youth training to raise new job opportunities for local people. The descendants of these women have lost interest in continuing these traditional ways of dealing with babassu palm trees and their products.

The format of the BabassuTech event can be replicated to other production chains. This format allows interaction, dialogue and knowledge exchange between the people of the main target audience and technical teams. For example, teachers, researchers, other traditional communities, representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations, public managers, entrepreneurs and other relevant actors. With appropriate adaptations to other production chains, it will be possible to give a better emphasis to the valuation of products and services (previously not perceived), especially considering the aspects related to the aggregation of value of products originating from Brazilian biodiversity.

Embrapa is in articulation with possible financiers to promote the upcoming events of BabassuTech, always in search of valuing the extractivist populations, especially the Women Breakers of Babassu Coconut of the state of Maranhão.

BabassuTech represented an important landmark in the way of approaching extractive communities in the State of Maranhão. It became a space for dialogue and exchange of knowledge between different actors interacting directly with the "Women Breakers of Babassu Coconut". Its final format was built based on the interaction of Embrapa's team of researchers and analysts with traditional communities. The interactions made in the various events made it clear to Embrapa how to work with this female extractivist public in the state of Maranhão and neighboring states, considering their real demands, as well as the specific ways of referring to these demands.

The differential of this event was to establish a process of interaction with the main beneficiaries of these actions: the "Women Breakers of Babassu Coconut". More important than the presence of these women in the events, was to promote their articulation with other groups of agroextractivists of the State of Maranhão. In addition to this, the emphasis was placed on his way of looking at and expressing this appreciation of the continued work with the babassu. The realization of the events showed the participants new possibilities and approaches to working with babassu, including new practices of value adding and income generation. The expanded perception of the work with the babassu opened several possibilities for the generation of new community businesses.

It is also worth mentioning the importance of the team composition of these events. The vision for any of the professional members of the BabassuTech's team should be to act as a process facilitator. In addition to the ability to use various audiovisual resources, there is the dynamic of communication with different audiences and also the creativity to improvise at different times. In events such as BabassuTech, for a public as special as the Women Breakers, many types of unforeseen events occur in the various phases before and after the event. The focus needs to be on encouraging the effective participation of local, regional and national partners, while respecting the particularities of Women Breakers as members of traditional communities.

A document was published that reports on the realization of editions of BabassuTech between the years 2011 to 2017, which can be accessed at the following link:
http://ainfo.cnptia.embrapa.br/digital/bitstream/item/190676/1/VI-BABACUTEC-final.pdf

At BabassuTech in 2017, the event was broadcast in electronic media reports. Below, the links of the published articles:
https://www.embrapa.br/cocais/busca-de-noticias/-/noticia/29905163/aproveitamento-do-babacu-alimento-carvao-e-ate-biodiesel

https://www.embrapa.br/cocais/busca-de-noticias/-/noticia/29904117/novas-demandas-das-quebradeiras-de-coco-sao-elencadas-durante-vi-babacutec

https://www.embrapa.br/cocais/busca-de-noticias/-/noticia/29903390/babacutec-debate-valorizacao-das-quebradeiras-de-coco-mulheres-de-lutas-e-conquistas-no-maranhao

https://www.embrapa.br/cocais/busca-de-noticias/-/noticia/29902421/legislacao-sobre-acesso-aos-recursos-geneticos-e-conhecimento-tra-dicional-e-a-economia-familiar-do-babacu

https://www.embrapa.br/cocais/busca-de-noticias/-/noticia/29901539/babacu-simbolo-da-luta-das-quebradeiras-de-coco-tem-grande-poten-cial-de-desenvolvimento-no-maranhao

In 2016 there was a publication reporting the regional workshops for collection and systematization of project demands with agro-extractive organizations. The following is the reference:
CAVALLARI, M. M.; TOLEDO, M. M. ; PORRO, R. ; ABREU, G. B. ; NUNES, W. ; FRAZÂO, J. M. F.; CAYRES, G. Construção participativa de projetos: lições aprendidas em consultas com quebradeiras de coco-babaçu no Maranhão. In: Terezinha Dias; Jane Simoni Eidt; Consolacion Udry. (Org.). Diálogos de saberes: relatos da Embrapa. 1ed. Brasília: Embrapa, v. 1, 2016. p.340-350.