You Can't Grow Potatoes in the Sky: Building Resilience in the Face of Climate Change in the Potato Park of Cuzco, Peru

Abstract

Although Quechua farmers contribute little to climate change, they are disproportionately experiencing the impacts of rapid changes in the high‐altitude environment of the Andes. We describe how Quechua farmers and Association ANDES, a local non‐profit organization, are rising to the challenge in Peru, using traditional knowledge and science in community‐led research to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. A globally important food crop, the potato (Solanum sp.) originated in the central Andean Mountains. Indigenous farmers collectively manage the Potato Park as a Biocultural Heritage Territory, and together with ANDES, are implementing the Pluriversity for Biocultural Landscapes and Resilient Food Systems to facilitate knowledge exchange and creative solution seeking for complex global problems such as climate change. We describe programs that support community resilience, local biocultural heritage, biocultural products and services, and global policy processes strengthening the rights of Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) and world indigenous peoples.

Indigenous Seed Systems and Biocultural Heritage: The Andean Potato Park’s Approach to Seed Governance

“…The Andean region is one of the world's centres of origin and domestication of food crops including the potato and other tubers (olluco, oca), and the "superfoods" quinoa and amaranth (Sayre et al, 2017). Since 1998, Asociación ANDES has worked with six (now five) Quechua communities to establish the Potato Park.…”

“…While many landraces, or local cultivars, do not produce high yields compared to industrially farmed crops, their diversity ensures resilience to shocks, stable productivity and nutrition. The diversity of native potatoes is also a source of pride and a symbol of the maintenance of tradition in Andean communities (Sayre et al, 2017).…”

“…In the Potato Park, native seeds are mainly accessed through seed saving, exchange with other farmers or local barter (ANDES, 2016). The sustainability and adaptability of farming and food system depends on farmers having the right to freely exchange seeds, develop new varieties and maintain their rights over traditional varieties (Sayre et al, 2017). When potatoes are harvested, tubers are first selected for use as seed (Sayre et al, 2017).…”

The White/Wiphala Paper on Indigenous Peoples' food systems

“…As the Andes have warmed, the cultivation zones of potatoes have shifted increasingly higher in elevation, where the land is scarcer (Sayre, Stenner and Argumedo, 2017). A Quechua farmer remarked that "You can't grow potatoes in the sky" in reflecting the challenges for maintaining the cold-adapted potato varieties and associated cultural practices that have been an integral feature of these lands for thousands of years (Sayre, Stenner and Argumedo, 2017). Amongst the most threatened peoples are the Indigenous Peoples from islands because of rising sea levels.…”

I Ke Ēwe ʻĀina o Ke Kupuna: Hawaiian Ancestral Crops in Perspective

“…We also learn from challenges and solutions of Ifugao rice-growing communities in the Philippines as traditional rice varieties enter global markets as commodities in an effort to save the heritage landscape [187,193]. Ficiciyan et al (2018) make a case for the complex set of ecosystem services that traditional crop varieties provide [194] which raises important questions about the resilience of such biocultural heritage to climatic change [195] and the role of biocultural innovation in generating new possibilities in the context of modern economic forces [196].…”