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Farmers Rescue Native Potato |
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By Abraham Lama*
Seven farming communities in Peru are trying to revive cultivation of original varieties of potatoes, knowledge of which is in danger of being lost.
LIMA – Native peoples of the Valley of Pisac, in the historical heart of Peru, are reclaiming several indigenous varieties of the potato, a tuber that has been consumed for 8,000 years, with the aim of protecting biodiversity and Quechuan indigenous culture.
Seven communities are participating in the creation of a center to promote ancient cultivation techniques, named the Potato Park, in Pisac in the southeastern province of Cusco.
“It will be a kind of communal genetic bank, dynamic and alive,” says Pedro Morales of Peru’s Agriculture Ministry.
Originating in the Andean area of South America, the potato is one of the most genetically diverse plants, but world commercial cultivation has been based on only one variety, the Solanum tuberosum.
In recent decades, the greater yield per hectare of the commercial variety and the pressure of demand had encouraged indigenous farmers to abandon the cultivation of native species, especially in the valleys of the central and northern mountains.
According to the International Potato Center (CIP), Peru produces 3 million tons of native potato each year, about 28 percent of the national total.
“The Potato Park is a very good idea for us farmers. For the first time we have support to preserve the traditional forms of cultivation that our grandparents taught us,” says Justino Ccana, leader of the Quechuan farming community Amaru.
The native potato has certain distinct characteristics, such as a more irregular shape than the commercial variety.
“Commercial potatoes have been developed according to the characteristics of demand, seeking to increase yield and resistance to disease while at the same time providing uniformity of shape, size and presentation,” Morales explained.
“Of course that has been beneficial to humanity since the potato is now the fourth most consumed food product on the planet,” he said.
“But on the other hand, this process has eroded the genetic biodiversity of this remarkable tuber and has increased its vulnerability to new diseases or pests. A gene bank has been created, with the aim of reducing such risks.”
The gene or germplasm is the genetic reproduction material of plants. In other words, it is the part of a plant used to make or cultivate new plants.
The Potato Park, the first of its kind in this country, will be run as a gene bank and is supported by entities like the CIP, the National Council on the Environment, the Peruvian Institute of Natural Resources, the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Institute for Environment and Development.
“I believe it will serve to teach other people to love our potatoes as much as we love them,” says Ccana.
* Abraham Lama is an IPS contributor.
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