Bolivia: "Now we only cultivate three varieties of native potatoes: copacabana, waycha and sacambaya."

In recent years, they say, the land has become arid and the streams have disappeared. Each year, they feel, less rain falls. Drought and frost are increasing.

For many families, selling their annual crops is their only source of income. But the challenges of climate change are making their livelihoods more difficult: the money from farming is not enough to sustain them.

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Under these conditions, younger generations in these Andean communities are, in many cases, forced to migrate.

Anastacia Delgado is originally from the Luquiapu community in the municipality of Tacopaya. She recalls that last year they didn’t harvest a single potato from their plot of land. In January 2024, a frost wiped out their entire crop.

From her childhood and youth, Doña Anastacia remembers, above all, the community practices and the great variety of potatoes they planted.

“Now we only plant three varieties: copacabana, waycha and sacambaya.”

Don Eleuterio Santos, 33, originally from the same community, migrated fifteen years ago to Brazil, then to Argentina, and later to Chile. Always in search of opportunities to improve his economic conditions.

From his childhood, he remembers some ancestral practices that were carried out in his community: such as the exchange of water to call for rain.

Traditional knowledge about the climate

Doña Anastacia says that it is the plants and animals that give the signs to know how the weather will behave and when to start agricultural activities.

“The fox cries earlier, the poplar and the seaweed (aquatic algae) turn green before their season,” he explains.

This means that the rains will come earlier, so the planting of tubers and quinoa must be brought forward.

When the rains were delayed, the community would gather, led by the Jilakata (local authority), to perform a ritual for Pachamama (Mother Earth). The entire community would come together to share kanka (a special dish for community events) and then travel to a spring with a low flow, playing traditional music and consuming coca leaves and alcohol. Water was drawn from this spring and carried to a larger one to be mixed with the water. According to the community members, this process "awakened the rains immediately."

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Doña Anastacia still predicts rain, cold, frost, and other weather patterns.

“For light rain, small winged ants appear, and for hail, large brown and black winged ants fly. For the strong sun to return after the rains, ’pancataya’ (a type of ladybug) appears, and mounds of earth appear on the hills.”

According to Doña Anastacia, the community has many other ways to predict the weather. For example, if the sky turns red at nightfall, it’s a sign of cold and frost. If the waychu (bird) cries, it means strong winds are coming. When the chiwanku (thrush) cries, it’s the rainy season.

Although to a lesser extent, those practices persist in some communities such as Challa Grande, which borders the community of Luquiapu.

In planting, harvesting, plowing and other agricultural activities they perform the humaraqa, the ayni and the mink’a (cooperative and collaborative work among neighbors, without remuneration) sacrificing a sheep or llama as an offering to Pachamama.

“(Now) we continue to do it but without the offerings, with the (Christian-Catholic) religion all that changed,” says Don Faustino Ignacio, originally from the indigenous territory of Challa Grande.

Doña Anastacia asserted that they no longer perform any rituals to Mother Earth, nor are there any native authorities to work and fulfill ancestral responsibilities in production.

That’s why, he insists, there are frost, drought, and other factors that affect production.

NATIVE POTATOES VERSUS COMMERCIAL POTATOES 

Although the Germplasm Bank of Tubers and Roots of the Toralapa Innovation Center claims to safeguard 2,432 varieties of native potatoes from Bolivia, it is estimated that only 30 of them are cultivated because the others are not commercially viable.

In the community of Don Faustino, the production of native potatoes also decreased due to climatic factors.

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Both Anastacia and Faustino agree that they currently plant more commercial potatoes than native varieties. The latter have a better yield and are more resistant to frost and drought.

Although the potatoes they plant are more resistant, the “wayku or quyllu potatoes” varieties are more colorful and contain more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Doña Anastasia explains that the waycha variety, which they plant now, didn’t exist years ago. The quyllu varieties were for their daily consumption. On the other hand, the luk’iy quyllu varieties were planted for making chuño, tunta, and muraya (dehydrated potatoes). These latter varieties could be preserved "for up to 20 years" and ensured food reserves during times of scarcity or famine.

In the Majasaya Mujlli community of the Challa district, 24% of potato production is for self-consumption. Research conducted by the Food Sovereignty and Agroecology Observatory also indicates that 23% is used for seed and 48% for chuño (freeze-dried potatoes).

Regarding marketing or exchange, 2% is allocated for sale, 1% for barter, and 2% corresponds to reciprocity.

The communities of Luquiapu, Challa Grande, and other communities in the Andean region base their economies largely on the sale of agricultural products and livestock in local markets. Bartering is practiced on a smaller scale at the Pongo Kasa and Confital fairs.

ALTERNATIVE 

Faced with the problem of economic sustenance, Don Eleuterio Santos proposed reforesting all available spaces for tree planting, with the goal of achieving sustainable economic development in the community. Santos stated that only 20% of his community’s territory is suitable for small-scale farming. The rest, he says, "can be used" for reforestation projects.

According to Santos, in the face of the climate crisis and the scarcity of economic income from agricultural production, one alternative to improve living conditions is reforestation.

DILEMMAS 

But these types of projects, in response to the socio-economic challenges posed by the climate crisis, present complex dilemmas for communities.

In countries like Chile, reforestation with species such as radiata pine or eucalyptus has been questioned by environmental groups.