[Exchanging resilient practices] Horizontal scaling of climate resilience for family farming in native potato farming in Bolivia

SDC’s Andes Resilient to Climate Change Project is implemented by the Helvetas Swiss IntercooperationFundación Avina consortium, together with the Native Potatoes (Papas Nativas) initiative of Helvetas Bolivia. In the Colomi and Morochata municipalities in Cochabamba, the project has horizontally scaled up the technologies and good practices that are resilient to climate change with 40 native potato farmer families.

Photo: © Vice-Ministry of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

The project worked jointly with the PROINPA Foundation during 2021, to strengthen production tools and techniques for 40 native potato-farmer families, with a view to scaling up in other regions of the country by using the climate resilient technologies and good practices. The project promoted the sustainability of the native potato value chain from production to connection with markets, taking into account the vulnerability of producer families in a context of climate change.

Together we learn and scale up: Climate Resilient Andes and Native Potatoes
© Andes Resilient Project

The model for scaling good practice involved the following:

  1. Economic characterisation of family farms. Families were evaluated on the variables of landscape reading, land use characteristics, and the climate resilience of production systems including irrigation. The evaluations enabled the project to work with 40 families in the Colomi and Morochata municipalities.
  2. Sustainable water resources management. Irrigation systems in Colomi and Morochata, based on existing structures from the 1990s are cleaned and improved to increase water availability to have two harvests per year.
  3. Promoting the use of seeds recovered by local producers and certified by the National Agricultural Health and Food Safety Service (SENASAG) and/or the Bolivian National Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Innovation (INIAF). The Native Potatoes project and the PROINPA Foundation purchased certified seeds and agricultural inputs for potato farmers in the Colomi and Morochata municipalities, to set up model plots. The certified seeds are of the Pinta Boca, Yana Qoyllu and Candelero varieties, which were acquired thanks to the native potato seed groups of Colomi. Both municipalities have seed growers’ associations, led by women.
  4. Transition to agroecological management of native potatoes using bio-inputs. The project has provided four electric fumigators for four farmer associations to increase production ecologically and to reduce the workload of women.

The lessons learned from this pilot experience have produced guidelines for replicating, expanding and scaling up good practices for the climate resilience of native potato production as a natural value for the climate resilience of the most vulnerable families in the Andean areas of Bolivia. The guidelines are expected to be widely promoted by the National Council for Ecological Production (UC-CNAPE) of the Ministry of Rural Development and Land (MDRyT). Bolivia has over 720,000 family farmers nation-wide, and the government has been working on various programmes that foster investment in family farming, and also programmes that help farmers market their products (such as the Family Farmers Market). This raises awareness about the potential of biodiversity and promotes it (resilient native potatoes being one example) and fosters businesses that use climate-responsible agricultural practices, contribute to nutrition, and strengthen gender equality and interculturality.

SDC supports the Andes Resilient to Climate Change and Native Potatoes projects, under the leadership of the Ministry of Rural Development and Lands and the Vice-Ministry of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. In June 2022, the projects held the «Plurinational Meeting on Native Potatoes» as the living heritage of the Bolivian peoples to ensure food security and resilience to climate change, with the participation of farmers, representatives of the communities of the Province of Camacho in La Paz, entities that support agricultural production and entities linked to markets. The meeting was an opportunity to demonstrate technological innovations, hold a competition for native and commercial potatoes, and offer training on processing and marketing with a market approach.

The photos tell the stories of Juliana García and Wilma Espinoza, leaders of the Piusilla Community Association of Women Native Potato Farmers in Morochata. They worked jointly with the PROINPA Foundation, accompanied by the Andes Resilient to Climate Change project, to strengthen their production techniques with climate change resilient technology, to make the potato value chain sustainable from production to connection with the market.

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Source: Andes Resilient to Climate Change

About Andes Resilient to Climate Change

The regional project Andes Resilient to Climate Change is promoted by SDC and facilitated by the Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation – Avina Foundation consortium in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Andes Resilient is part of SDC’s Global Climate Change and Environment Programme.

For further information:
Brochure Andes Resilient to Climate Change Regional Project (spanish)
FS Andes Resilient to Climate Change Regional Project (english)
Brochure Andes Resilient to Climate Change Regional Project – Bolivia (spanish)
Facebook Andes Resilient to Climate Change Regional Project

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