Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecorregion 

SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF NATIVE POTATO CULTIVATION IN THE COMMUNITY OF QUILCAS IN THE MANTARO VALLEY, IN THE CENTRAL ANDES OF PERU 

In Situ 2001 E-Conference
(5 november to 17 december)

Maria Scurrah [1],Raul Ccanto [2] and Noemi Zuñiga [3]
In collaboration with Grupo Yanapai  

“The collections obtained by the author (who collected 1,100 clones during 15 years in the area of Cusco) exclusively belong to crops of indigenous people, who probably have a sense for conservation and prefer diversity for domestic consumption, thus conserving the richness of native germplasm. In contrast, the Mestizo farmers are motivated by profit and are only interested in cultivating a small number of varieties, discarding the native germplasm…” 
(Cesar Vargas 1962  

Introduction

This work tries to explain the diversity and associated technology of the native potato growers in the Community of Quilcas in the Mantaro valley. We argue with Vargas that the fact that farmers plant for subsistence with a cultural gastronomic rationale is key for maintaining diversity. Each household manages the seeds of diversity and in the case of native potatoes this is helped by a sectoral fallowing system which is managed communally. 

The link to the market is local and weak which plays a positive role in maintaining diversity. Harvest and data collection This year the community of Quilcas harvested its native potatoes in the sector called “Itaña Corral” (sector is called “Laymi” in Quechua and “aynoka” in Aymara). The land that corresponds to the sector each year is further subdivided into 5 large areas, one for each “barrio” or neighborhood. The president of each barrio then distributes land to each registered household. The community of Quilcas has 247 registered “comuneros” or heads of household of whom 51% are women. 

The plots range between 300-500 m², varying according to the number of “comuneros” per barrio, and are more or less sufficient to plant a sack (90Kg) of seed. The section at the highest elevation is reserved for the frost resistant or bitter potatoes, which they call “shiris”, and is distributed to families that request land for this purpose inregardless of the “barrio” to which they belong. In principle, each family receives a similar area of land. However, negotiations after land distributions occur with certain families bartering for more plots from families that lack either seed, labor, or guano, with varying sharecropping arrangements. The most frequent arrangements show that the highland shepherd households plant more plots. (chart 3). The highland shepherds have more resources needed for native potato growing such as high quality seed, which is stored under better conditions of lower temperatures than that stored in the houses on the valley floor. They also normally have llamas for transport, and are more dependent on native potatoes for food and for bartering for maize. Upon inquiring about kinds of potato growers who live in the community, the response was that there were two types: the town dwellers [4] and the highland shepherds. [i]The highland shepherds were in turn categorized as commercial, that is, those who sell, and non-commercial.

The date[5] selected for visiting the harvest was June 21-24, which was the second weekend of the dates decreed by the community assembly for harvest this year. The vast majority of households harvest during weekends so that school children and other persons that work outside the community can help with the harvest, which is a task that requires maximum labor that unlike other field work, is recruited almost entirely from within the family.

This year’s sector is considered “near” because it is only a 3 to -5 hours walk from town.  During harvest families sleep in the fields under plastic shelters.  The families that own llamas are doubly busy because in addition to their harvest, they are transporting the harvest principally down to the town, but also to shepherd´s huts across the “puna”.  This year the cost of transport was S/. 2 soles per sack for which 2 “cargueros[6] are needed.  It is normal to pay transport with potatoes or with labor, helping with the harvest of the of the llama owner. The frequent jingle of bells announced the constant arrival and departure of the llama trains. Some families own donkeys and horses which also help in the harvest transport.

The men open the furrows with their Andean footploughs and the women dig and collect the potatoes with  “allachus”[7]. The harvested potatoes are deposited in “mantas”, and later are poured onto an “era” or pile from where they are placed in sacks ready for transportation. In the evening this heap is covered with several layers of “ichu”, a highland straw, in order to protect the potatoes from the frosts that can go as low as  –8^o C during this time of year.  After the harvests only the the “shiri” potatoes remain and are spread out on flat areas to begin the freeze drying process to obtain chuño[8], The rest are taken to homes classified and stored for seed and for consumption called the “troja”.

Sampling

An inventory of the varieties in each plot was obtained by harvesting a plot of 4 rows x 7 m (M. Holle, Pers. Com).  If the plot was already harvested a 12kg sample was taken from the mixed pile and sorted into varieties. Farmers were asked to name the piles of different varieties and the names and numbers were recorded.

16 “chacras” or plots were investigated: 6 of these “chacras” belonged to Llacta, 5 to  Colpar, 3 to  Pampa, and 2 to the 27^{th d} Mayo neighborhood. The varieties of 6 additional farmers were studied in their houses in Colpar and Llacta. In these cases, we sampled of the “troja” for consumption or seed Thus, we have varietal inventories for 23 families, who represent about 10% of the community members.

We found four different modes of planting the potato crop (Figure 1).  Chalo” are the fields that are planted with diverse varieties in mixtures, and this was the pattern for the majority of the fields (63%), most of these potatoes being for home consumption or for gift giving.  Shiri fields also planted in a mixture but mainly with bitter varieties for processing into chuño (24% of the plots).Other chacras are planted entirely with one, two or three native varieties not in a mixture (19%) These are probably destined mainly for sale or exchanges.  Finally “chacras” planted with “white” varieties from plant breeding programs (6.4%).  The varieties Yungay and Liberteña seem to be adapted to the extreme conditions of low temperatures and soil acidity characteristic of e “puna” soils. Ishpai (urine) plots are favored for these varieties. These are the animal corrals turned into fields during the “turno” year, and are the most fertile fields due to the accumulation of urea from the animals who sleep in these stone enclosures.  We estimate a yield of at least 35 t/ha in these stone corrals.

Varieties found in 15 “chacras “ and 6 stores

The average number of varieties found per plot was 19.3  (range 11-29) and in the storages, the average was 27.7 (range 14-41). The difference in number between plot and storage is because each family plants several plots where mixtures differ (see Table 3) and we only studied one, while in the storage we find the sum of the different plots, which means that the data obtained about the number of varieties per plot underestimates the diversity which each family manages.

The results show that the constellation of varieties handled by each family is different and within this variation the surprise is the great number of varieties that were found only once. Thus, among the 23 families we found a total of 149 varieties, 64 of which were recorded once, and 38 varieties on two farms, while 9 was the number of varieties that almost all families have and that are found in high frequencies (above 10%) in the farms. (Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 1:

Valdivia and Holle (2001) distinguish five categories of varieties: very frequent, frequent, infrequent, rare and very rare.  In our case the “very rare” were the most “frequent”.

Since this sample of farmers is only 10% of the households, some varieties might be found in other households or, alternatively, some (or many) varieties could be in the process of extinction or, on the contrary, in the phase of being introduced and tested. We found one such case in the variety Maria Huanca[9] that was found on one farm. This variety was introduced[10] in 1999 in the intermediate zone through a program of involving farmers in the participatory selection of `clones` with resistance to nematodes and frost. Possibly this farmer is interested in this variety and was testing and multiplying it in the highlands. If the `clone` is going to subsist in the community, it has to be able to grow in the “puna”, which is the essence of the their seed management, as will be seen further on.

There are significant differences in the number of plots we found among the highland shepherd families and the town dwellers; The average number of “chacras” for shepherd families was 8 plots, (5 chalo, 2 Shiri 1 of “others” and 0 whites), while the town dwellers only averaged 4.3 “chacras” (3 of chalo, 0.5 of Shiri, 0.5 of whites and 0.2 of others).

 Curiously, the average number of varieties of the highlanders in this study was 20 whereas the town dwellers averaged 24. This slight reduction in the number of varieties could be the effect of selling versus growing only for home consumption, but needs verification.

Names and the relation with phenotypes and genotype:

The name is the important carrier of the local taxonomic knowledge. In this study, each name within each household equals a phenotype[11], and these in a high percentage agree with a different genotype. What we do not know is whether different households have different names for the same variety of potato, and how many different genotypes have the same name.(Zimmerer and Douches 1991, and Zimmerer 1992)

The change over to Spanish by the community has led to also changing variety names to Spanish so that only a third of the varieties still maintain names in Quechua, another third has names in Spanish and the last third has mixed names, such as for example: Azul Huayta, Cornish blanco, and Huayro Rojo. In many cases there still exist 2 or parallel names, as in Limeña or Allahuaycha, Camotillo Peruano or Ucush, Caramelo or Sumay Chuncho.

The change of language sometimes causes the loss of identity of the variety and confusion (Valdivia Pers com.). Of all the people we met at harvest only one old lady that lived in the highland was a quechua speaker. We found 24 varieties, which she identified perfectly. However, her son, who was helping her with the harvest, warned us that it would not be worthwhile to study this “chacra” because his mother did not know anything[12].

There were 8 cases where the farmers did not know the name of some variety in their field, in some cases because they were new. We found a single case where members of a family, did not know the name of 7 out of the 25 varieties that they possessed.  There are definitely some people who know the varieties much better than others. We could see that the younger members of a household did not acquire the level of knowledge necessary to be abreast of all this diversity. Schooling could be blamed for this visible loss of local knowledge.

The information and knowledge which is handed on when planting, hilling harvesting selecting the seed and the “troja” for consumption, and when preparing food. For all these reasons, women are better carriers of this taxonomic knowledge, not only because they are responsible for seed, food storage and preparation, but also often when males migrate they are left behind to carry out the work in the fields. In addition it is fascinating to always find people enormously interested in the diversity of their potatoes beyond what is required for survival and food security. These people are called “conservationists” or sometimes “curious” and are continually experimenting, collecting and devoting time to work on the harvests of other communities with the purpose of bringing home new varieties or renewing their seed. In Quilcas all these people are women, but in many other places they are men, because they are more mobile and often work in distant areas. In this study we were unable to find out if these persons also fulfill the role of seed source for the community or if every family has an independent network. The evidence of potato diversity in every family points to independent networks for each  family.

The “improved” varieties, which originate in plant breeding programs, are called “white” (although they often have red skin) and are also incorporated in these mixtures known as “chalo”.  In this situation they do not seem to have an advantage over the native varieties. (table 1).

Table 1. Improved varieties found in the “chacras”

                        () standard deviation

Figure 2: The majority of the varieties were found only once. Few varieties are shared by the majority of families.

Figure 3: Names and average percentage planted with the most frequent varieties in the community of Quilcas

Bitter varieties (Shiris). “Chacras” planted with bitter potatoes were harvested at a later date and only one “chacra” was evaluated. Interestingly, other non-bitter varieties are found in a small proportion (Table2) [13]

            Mauna is a used for fresh consumption and for processing for chuño and is frost resistant

Which is the best?

When asked, “which variety is the best for you?” The invariable answer in the 23 cases was always “They are all good”.  Often they added that what they most like is exactly the diversity that makes them so pleasant to consume, and that one does not feel satiated when eating many different varieties. They also state that in the field the various potatoes help each other, with the stronger helping the weaker[14]. We also find cultural and aesthetic considerations, such as the fondness for certain varieties, the pleasure to harvest diverse potatoes the loveliness of the many colors of flowers and the dullness of harvesting a single kind of potato.

What is curious is that every family has over the years created different mixtures of their native potatoes. Although some varieties dominate, these are not always the same. The varieties Huayro Rojo and Muru Huayro and some yellow varieties (Figure 3) are those that are found in a greater proportion on almost all the households.

The Families and the different seeding modalities

Table 3. Farms (chacra) and farmers studied.

CH= the data were collected from the “chalo” field called “chagro” in other places
Seed or Cons= the data from the troja for home consumption or seed.

These varieties dominate for three main reasons. Firstly, they are among the few native varieties that have market acceptance and can always be sold when there is a need for cash. Secondly, they have high yield potential, and also a wide adaptation and rusticity, which fills the need of food security, which gives these Pan-Peruvian varieties national importance. Interestingly, the first two do not belong to the dominant tetraploid S. Andigena species, but are S. X chaucha  and S. Phureja which are tripolid and diploid

However, these varieties are susceptible to scab caused by the fungus synchitrium endobioticum, which this year was serious due to wet conditions after the onset of tuberisation. The farmers argue that the scabs which are an entirely superficial lesion.

Nevertheless they are punished by a price drop when arriving at some markets with these lesions. What is serious is that the spores of this fungus survive the 5 years of fallow. It is one of the indicators that show that shortened rotations have negative consequences with regards to the “sustainability” of the system.

How much do they sell?

This study did not obtain quantitative data of “how much” was sold. However, invariably the answer when asked how much do you sell was “few” (poco) and “para el gasto” (to buy some cash goods, or to cover costs)-. We suspect that the “surplus” of native potatoes that each family has for sale in Quilcas is minimal and is sold by the  “arroba” (12 kg lot), when they need cash. These are sold by women at the Wednesday fair, and are only available from June to October. The trips to exchange potatoes for maize are done by the shepherds and mostly by males. In this study we did not come across the farmers that sell substantial quantities of native potatoes, presumably because they were busy transporting other people´s harvests. There may also be very few commercial shepherds. 

What is interesting is that the community members plant the “improved” varieties in the intermediate production zone where the land is privately owned. Here they utilize the technology introduced in recent decades for “improved” varieties with external inputs of agro chemicals. It is also the zone where the serious problems of weevil, tuber moth and late blight are endemic. In other words they handle the traditional technology for consumption in the highland and the “modern” for the market. However, as a result of the collapse of potato prices in recent years, farmers are seeking alternatives to planting potatoes for the market. The studies of Mayer and Glave in neighboring communities in the Tulumayo show that cultivating native potatoes is more costly (in terms of labor inputs) and that the poorer farmers cannot afford this luxury (Mayer 2001).

Exchange

Highland households exchange potatoes for maize not only in the Mantaro valley with families from the town but also some track down through the Eastern slopes of the Andes to the Pariahuanca valley, about a three days walk, where potatoes are also exchanged mainly for maize, one presumes at a more favorable exchange rate.

Seed of improved varieties are maintained in the highlands and brought down when needed. This explains why seed is almost always of excellent quality although they never purchase any.  Studies (L. Bertshinger1990) indicate that although the mother plant may be infected with virus, the majority of daughter tubers obtained from this plant are virus free due to the low replication of the virus at very low temperatures. Hence, seed management can be seen as a constant shifting of seed tubers through the various agroecological zones, and this partly explains the presence of improved varieties in chacras of the town folk found in our study of the highland sector.

Community members explained that until the 1960´s native potatoes were planted in the sectoral fallow system in the intermediate production zone but were then displaced by the “improved” varieties and native potatoes were shifted to the “high” production zone.

The question is, is the land where they are now cultivating native potatoes slowly deteriorating or is it resilient with the shorter 5 year rotation system providing sufficient buffer so that this new system on this fragile land will be as sustainable as the old one was.

Pests, diseases management and soil fertility

 Long rotations regulated by the community are the key aspect of pest and soil disease management in the high agroecological production zone.  In the past there was sufficient land for 9 rotational sectors whereas now the potatoes return to the same sector every 5 years

In the year 2000 the communal assembly, led by the president, prohibited the utilization of chemical fertilizers. Some community members considered this an exaggeration and applied urea at hilling up; and informed us that there was a yield response. However, the majority of farmers approve of this prohibition partly because they think that in the long term they are going to damage the soils and partly because they lack money to purchase urea

No fungicide or insecticide is utilized. In recent years late blight has attacked the potato crop. This is exacerbated in Niño years due to the higher temperatures and humidity.  It is under these conditions that planting in mixtures shows a real advantage in protecting from crop failure.

Conclusions

This is a traditional system that can easily break down as it is based on an area of the cold high-risk marginal soils where the yields are lower. They are threatened with concepts like  “competitive” and “technological change” and pressures from population growth for intensification that could take away the freedom to maintain this luxurious diversity.

The use of “chalo” or mixture is a system that permits the management of great diversity. It is promoted by the “fondness” (Valladolid 2001) for special varieties for which they know all the names, and know their qualities both in the field and in the kitchen. This delicacy of the gods, as described in their legends, is confirmed by any person who has had the privilege of tasting 8 or 10 of these “gift” potatoes accompanied by any chili sauce.

The diversity of planted potatoes and their management show that almost all are varieties of broad adaptation and that can be grown in a variety of climates. The varieties that are not adapted to the cold climate of the highland will continue to be lost in this management system.

The intensification of the use of the native potato land in the “puna” land deserves special attention from the scientific community. Signs that threaten the sustainability are severe an attack of weevil and widespread scab and wart disease. Nematodes have never been noted in this system but invariably they show up when rotations are shortened. Studies to support traditional seed management, soils fertility, should prove useful.

Bibliography

Bertshinger L.Keller,E.R..:Gessler,C.:Ezeta,1990.Epidemilology of potatop viruses in Perú. 11.Triennial Conference EAPR, Edinburgh (UK)pp263-264.

Mayer Enrique y Glave. M. 2001. Profit and losses  in Peasant Economies.  in The Articulated Peasant. Houssehold Economics in the Andes.Wetview Press.

Scurrah. M.; Fernandez-Baca.E.; Ccanto.R.;Olivera. E;.Nuñez.E.; Zuñiga.N.;  Leisa.Boletin de Ileia para la Agricultura Sostenible de Bajos Insumos Externos. Abril 2000.15(3-4)pp26-28

Valdivia R.; Huallpa, E.; Choquehuanca, V.; Holle, M. 1966  Monitoring potato and oxalis varieties in mixtures grown on farm family field in the Titicaca Lake basin, Perú. 1990-95. En Eyzaguirre,P. Iwanaga(eds) Particpatory plant breeding: Porceedings of a workshop. IPGRI 144-150.

Valladolid Julio y  Apffel-Marglin.F 2001. Cosmovision and the nurturing of Biodiversity. In Indigenous tradition and Ecology. The interbeeing of Cosmology and Community.  Harvard University Press.

Vargas Calderón Cesar. 1962. El Germoplasma de las papas cultivadas y silvestres de los Andes peruanos. En Ensayos Botánicos. Publicaciones de la universidad del Cuzco. Cuzco, Perú de 1962 pp71-72.

Zimmerer, K.S 1996. Changing Fortunes: Biodiversity and Peasant lievelihood in the Peruvian Andes. Los Angeles and Berkely: University of California Press

Zimmerer.K.S. y Douches D.S. 1991 Geogarphical approaches to Crop Conservation: The Patterning of Genetic Diversity in Andean Potatoes. Economic Botany 45(2):176-189

[1] CIP, Peru

[2] Agronomist of the field team

[3] Head of the Genetic Resources Program, INIA

[4] Quilcas has 5 neighbourhoods or “barrios”: 3 are part of the town located at the valley floor in the maize production zone, and the other two, Colpar and Llacta are located in the intermediate zone, in the tuber producing zone above 3600 m.

[5] The harvest dates are set by the community assembly each year. This year was very interesting because a sector was attacked by the Andean potato weevil and was given permission to harvest that sector early. The rest of the sector was scheduled between June, 16-28 a date later than normal because the rains were prolonged, which caused the potatoes to mature late.

[6] “Carguero” is a male llama; normally the females do not carry loads. 

[7] Allachu: a tool with a narrow blade and short handle used to dig.

[8] Chuño:is a freeze dried product which results from a procedure  which also detoxifies the bitter potatoes from the glycoalkaloids and phenols.

[9] Even though Quilcas is only 30 minutes from the INIA and CIP stations near Huancayo, this variety released in 1989 by the INIA never reached Quilcas.

[10] In Quilcas farmers differentiate three production zones which they call the "low zone” (3300-3400 m.a.s.l.) at the valley floor, where maize is mainly cultivated; the “intermediate zone ” (3400-3800) where the improved potato is cultivated in rotation with other Andean tubers, beans, grains, and legumes, and the “high zone ”  (3800-4800), called “puna” where the main feature is natural grasses for raising livestock. One sector in the high zone is reserved for the “sectoral fallow” system of planting native potato. The number of farmers using this land has gone from 57 in 1960 to 240 in 2001. The planting technique used is called “siembra en crudo” or “Tikpa” and is a no tillage technique which is crucial for erosion prevention as most of this land has slopes of over  45^o. Almost all the activities are carried out by couples. At planting the male digs a hole with the footplough and woman places the seed in this hole. Often more then one seed (and more than one variety) are planted in the same hole.  The guano is applied over the seed 15 days after seeding and the first hilling, called “volteo”, is roughly one month after planting. This is hard work where the male digs into the soil and the woman upends the clod thus forming a row. Only for the second hilling up do they utilize a modified hoe with a short handle called “azadon”. The fields seem very clean and they do not seem to have weed problems. 

[11] Equivalent to morphotype

[12] Because this kind of knowledge has been scorned it is not valued and it is a challenge to exteriorize it.

[13]  The fact that the fields planted to bitter potatoes do not appear in the study indicates that the number of varieties each family manages is underestimated. 2/3 of the households planted 1-2 plots of “Shiri” potatoes for processing chuño, which is crucial for food security, and more so for the highland households who plant 3 times more plots of bitter potatoes than the town dwellers.

[14] There have been scant scientific studies, but these confirm this perception. Mixtures stand up better to extreme events such as frosts, droughts, flooding and diseases.

[i] The highland shepherds live in the “Puna,” raise sheep, lamas, alpacas, cattle; however, they have houses in the town, or they would not be able to access communal pastures. . It is commonly accepted that that the highland shepherds are richer, because the sale of livestock is more profitable than sales from agricultural products.