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The Saraguro Indians have literally won an uphill battle for food security, thanks to a few key innovators.
Scattered over the Andes in southern Ecuador, between 2,000 and 3,500 meters above sea level, lie the communities of the Saraguro Indians. The Saraguro have subsisted in this area since the Incas brought them from neighboring Bolivia, more than five centuries ago.
At first glance, the slopes look impossibly steep to farm, but green fields and the occasional grazing cow or sheep are everywhere, as if glued to the mountainsides by a giant hand. Though beautiful, these peaks and valleys are covered by thin soil that once produced very little. Such low production put families at risk every year. Recalls Doña Lucrecia Espinoza, a farmer in the village of Selva Alegre, “We had at least one month each year we called el mes del hambre [the month of hunger], when our grain had run out, and the new crop was not ready to harvest.” Poor roads and the long distance from Quito, the capital of Ecuador, meant that farmers were cut off from most government programs.
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The
road starts
with just one farmer
In 1995, improved agricultural technology started trickling
into Saraguro through a modest project aimed at helping farmers to try
new varieties of barley, one of their main food crops. The two new varieties,
called Shyri and Atahualpa, were developed by Ecuador’s National
Institute of Agricultural and livestock
Research (Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria, or
INIAP) and the ICARDA/CIMMYT Barley Breeding Program for Latin America,
under the leadership of Hugo Vivar, based at CIMMYT. The new varieties
resisted diseases and potentially could yield much more than farmers’
current varieties.
The work in Saraguro is a collaboration between CIMMYT and INIAP, which assigned breeders Jorge Coronel (see p. 16) and Oswaldo Chicaiza (who led the effort for several years) to the project. Coronel asked the local priest to announce at Sunday Mass that researchers were looking for farmers to plant improved varieties. Just one farmer, Abel Gualán, agreed to try the new barley. Gualán took a sack of seed, plus some fertilizer, and sowed his crop. “A few months later he harvested eight times more grain than his neighbors,” relates Coronel.
Next year, a number of farmers were eager to try the new seed. Coronel proposed a deal: they could have a sack of seed and a little fertilizer—on credit. Most farmers had never been considered eligible for credit, and they were wary. Coronel explained that they were not to repay the loan in cash but with the harvested grain. Thirteen farmers accepted. None had any trouble repaying the loan.
Nine years later, the project helps more than 3,000 farmers in 17 communities. Average barley yields in these communities (2.8 tons per hectare) are the second highest in South America, after those of Chile (3.5 tons per hectare), where resources are much more plentiful. The Saraguro have enough to eat all year, and most farmers have a surplus to sell. Comments Doña Lucrecia, “Nowadays if people don’t have maize, barley, wheat flour, and potatoes to eat, it’s because they’re just plain lazy.”
Expanding
choices
for farmers
Now that they do not have to worry about food security, individual communities have started tackling other problems. The people of Selva Alegre recently pooled their resources to dig small reservoirs high in the mountains, where they store water from streams and rain. They hooked up several kilometers of plastic pipe to bring the water down to their fields. The new system allows them to sow two crops per year. Their next goal is to provide all 36 households in Selva Alegre with running water. The inhabitants of Seucer, the driest environment in the area, carved a reservoir from the rock at the top of a hill, but they have not raised enough funds to buy the three kilometers of pipe they need to fill the reservoir and channel the water to their fields.
The project has also raised awareness about conserving and improving the soil. Concerned farmers have begun rotating barley, maize, wheat, triticale, or potatoes with beans, peas, and other nitrogen-fixing species. Local leaders such as Don Lucho García of Selva Alegre are trying zero tillage. Vivar and Coronel are promoting the formation of natural terraces with earth-anchoring grasses to keep soil from washing away.
The Saraguro are increasingly interested in new options. In response to their request for improved versions of other crops, INIAP selected and released Cotacachi, a high-yielding wheat introduced from CIMMYT and well adapted to the high, harsh environment of Saraguro. Farmers are also sowing an improved potato variety from the International Potato Center (CIP). The variety is resistant to potato late blight, a serious disease in the area.
The women of Selva Alegre are improving family nutrition by diversifying the vegetable crops they grow in their household plots, and they have learned to prepare a wider range of foods from barley and maize through training from INIAP.
A man had ridden all night from his remote village for some of the barley seed that could be gotten just on the strength of one’s signature.
The
secret of success
“The success in Saraguro is the result of a combination of factors: the farmers themselves, the local leaders, the project coordinator, and the technology,” points out Vivar. “The fact that the loans were payable in kind, not cash, was essential. In the past nine years, economic conditions in Ecuador have fluctuated widely—even the currency changed, from the sucre to the dollar—but none of this affected farmers’ ability to repay their loans.” Village teamwork underpins the project. In each village, one farmer distributes seed and encourages others to try new crops and practices. These well-respected men and women set an example of hard work, collaboration, and openness to new ideas.
Doña
Carmen Sanmartín is the community leader in La Papaya, where she
lives with her husband and their nine children. Tall and wiry, she is
indefatigable at home and in the field. She was among the first to plant
a new maize variety introduced from Bolivia. Called quality protein maize,
or QPM, it could improve protein intake—particularly of children
and farm animals.
Patricio Ordoñez, from San Pablo de Tenta, began helping with the project some years ago. Not long ago he was roused from bed early one morning by a man who had ridden on horseback all night from his remote village. He had come for some of the barley seed that could be gotten on the strength of one’s signature.
Ordoñez gave this complete stranger some seed and fertilizer on credit, which contrasts with the usual response in a place where people do not even listen to you unless you “know someone.” Honoring this confidence, project participants have an excellent record of repaying their loans.
A
highly productive investment
The project’s achievements were made on a shoe-string budget: starting with virtually nothing (in cash) the first year, it now has a budget of US$ 20,000 annually. Supporters have included Oregon State University, Colorado State University, CIMMYT, ICARDA, Field Crop Development Centre/Alberta, Canada, Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, and PREDUZA (a CSO funded by the Netherlands). Operating on such a low budget has been possible because of low local costs and the efficiency with which the project is managed. Nevertheless, the lack of funds prevents the project from moving into similar poverty stricken areas.
A major concern is what will happen after the project draws to a close. Vivar and Coronel are trying to set up cooperatives, for example, to produce and sell seed or to raise livestock for the local market. In this and other ways, they hope the Saraguro will maintain their new-found food security for a long time to come.
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For more information: |
| h.vivar@cgiar.org |
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February, 2004