The Pintadas Solar project, which foments farming on small family-owned plots, has won the Seed Award, granted by the United Nations and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The project is based on irrigation and energy production, and uses water from small dams in the northern semiarid region of Brazil to boost productivity and provide income for family farms.

Begun in 2006 as an initiative of the groups Rede SulSulNorte and Redeh, the prize-winning effort is under way in Pintadas, a municipality of 11,000 people.

The prize, awarded Nov. 26, gives the effort greater visibility, but what is essential is to consolidate it as a model, coordinator Thaís Corral told Tierramérica. “We are going to adjust the irrigation and pumping technologies and create a specific microcredit program,” she said.