Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized January 2007 W W W W W No. 99 orld Bank orld Bank orld Bank orld Bank orld Bank IK Notes http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/default.htm are notcurrentlyinuse of theLake Titicaca basin,butthatmost fields covermorethan120,000hectares fields. Ericksonestimatedthatraised constructing theplatformssurround Canals thatprovidedtheearthfor meters long,and0.5to1meterhigh. 1 to20meterswide,tenhundredsof Aymara) areelevatedplatformsofearth, government cooperativesin1968. colonial haciendas,andthenbecame converted intopasturearoundthe 1100 AD civilization butfellintodisusearound in thePunoregionduring Tiahuanaco 1000BC. Raisedfieldagriculturethrived raised fieldsatsomepointbefore vealed thatfarmersbeganconstructing the participationoflocalfarmers,re- colleagues between1981and1987with tation, carriedoutbyEricksonandhis investigation andagronomicexperimen- waru T provides dry surfaces inthewetand the depthoftopsoilforcrops, and raised platformallowsfarmers todouble attenuation oftheeffects frosts.The more efficient use ofradiantenergy, and improvement, increasedwaterstorage, rehabilitation ofmarginalsoils,drainage altitude problems thataffectagricultureathigh adapted toagriculturaluse. create raisedfieldsthatwerebetter displaced hugeamountsofsoilinorderto situation, Andean indigenouspopulations cultivate. Inordertodealwiththis is pronetoflooding,andthusdifficult 3,830 metersabovesealevel.Theterrain Raisedfieldsresolvedmanyofthe Raised fields( tion onagriculturalproductioninPuno, development: Theimpactofraisedfieldirriga- Using traditionalknowledgeineconomic he as the 4 . Thetechnologycombinesthe

Andean regionofPuno,known 2 ; mostofthefieldswerelater inQuechua, camellones , islocatedat 1 . Archaeological suka kollus inSpanish, 3 in drainage. Crop yields,inparticular logged byensuringadequate the subsoilfrom becomingwater- and, intherainyseason,prevents sporadic droughts duringthecycle by thecanalslowersimpactof ing plains.Themoisture provided higher thanthoseofthesurround- two tothree degrees centigrade reached in[raisedfield]areas are mum nighttimetemperatures Practices onIndigenousKnowledge: the UNESCOdatabaseofBest effects wasdescribedasfollowsin An evaluationoftheresultthese fields toextendtheharvestperiod. sediments thatcanbeaddedtothe nutrients andproduceorganic-rich altitude. Thecanalsalsocapture frost thatisoftenpresentathigh protects thecropsagainstkilling the canalsduringday, which the droughts.Sunheatswaterin the platformsprovidemoistureduring The water-filledcanalsadjacentto often floodedlakeandriverterrain. IK Notes IK IK Notes IK ik IK Notes IK available at: this initiative. A webpageonIKis World BankGrouporitspartnersin and shouldnotbeattributed tothe this articlearethoseoftheauthors organizations. Theviewsexpressedin institutions, andmultilateral communities, NGOs,development partnership betweentheWorld Bank, Learning UnitaspartofanevolvingK the Africa region’s Resultsand outside theregion.Itispublishedby occassionally onsuchinitiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa and Indigenous Knowledge(IK)initiatives IK Notes IK IK Notes IK Experience showsthatthemini- reportsperiodicallyon //www 39133 .worldbank.org/afr/ 5 39133

2 yields of potatoes and other Andean tubers, are 50% to deviation and coefficient of variation observed in data set II 100% higher (...). (…) Studies carried out over the past for the raised fields), and the shortcomings of a costly eight years, covering rotation cycles of five years of NGO staff participation in carrying out rehabili- cultivation plus three years of fallow, and estimated on tation. the basis of an economic life of 20 years, showed a 7% According to Erickson10, many farms abandoned raised annual average increase in profits even after mainte- fields in spite of the increase in crop yield. However, nance costs were deducted. This result has been reasons for abandonment of the raised fields are indepen- 6 achieved in spite of two El Niños. dent of the technique’s effectiveness for production. Following the apparent success of this experimentation, Among the reasons Erickson found are: Erickson and his colleagues began a small-scale develop- - Competing labor demands: Constructing large blocks of ment project to rehabilitate pre-Hispanic raised field raised fields requires a significant amount of labor at the in a few indigenous communities of the Lake start, even though this need diminishes when spread out Titicaca basin, specifically in the region. By the late over successive years of cultivation. However, many 1980’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and govern- farmers migrate for temporary work to cities and mines ment agencies in Peru and began to promote raised during a part of the year, which reduces the availability of field rehabilitation projects by providing funding and labor for raised field implementation. assistance for their rehabilitation7. Estimates show that - Traditional fallow cycles: Traditionally, farmers plant farmers from several hundred Quechua and Aymara crops for three years and then leave fields in fallow for up communities rehabilitated between 500 and 1,500 hectares to twenty years. This rotation pattern allows for an optimi- of raised fields in the years before 19908. A restoration zation of the potential of exhausted and eroded mountain project supported by CARE-Peru began in 1991 to con- soils, at a relatively low cost. Farmers today apply this tinue using the irrigation in Puno. traditional rotation technique to raised field agriculture, To evaluate the effectiveness of raised fields for Puno’s even though it is not necessary for fields that are well agricultural sector, it is useful to determine whether the managed. Thus, many raised fields that appear to be benefits of implementing the technique outweigh the costs. abandoned might actually be in fallow. The interpretation of four data sets helped to determine - Competition with livestock: Livestock is a significant this9. (I) The agricultural yield data (kg/ha) from Puno’s income source for Quechua farmers. Those who manage Chatuma and Caritamaya communities for 1992-93 pro- raised field areas must choose between rehabilitating the vides an assessment of the impact of raised field irrigation fields and grazing livestock. Because livestock has rela- compared to that of mountainside and pampas terrain. The tively higher market value, farmers often choose livestock figures reveal that in general the yields that were produced over raised fields. Experiments are currently being carried with raised fields are higher. (II) A comparison of yields out by individual farmers for integrating raised field agricul- with and without raised fields in the Puno region (1999- ture with livestock grazing, but this integration of methods 2005) shows that in most cases agricultural yield was presents challenges and has not yet been widely imple- superior when raised fields were used. (III) Average mented. yields in the Puno region from 1979 to 1998 show a sustained increase in average yields starting in 1990. (IV) - Political instability: The instability caused by Shining Comparing the costs with the revenue yielded from the Path activities in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s resulted harvest of the same year from the fields managed by in most international aid agencies leaving Peru, including CARE in 1999-2000 leads to the conclusion that the those who were promoting raised fields in Puno. NGO benefits of using raised field irrigation outweigh the costs funding for raised field rehabilitation thus became increas- incurred by CARE. However, the data also demonstrates ingly irregular, and some fields were therefore abandoned. that the investment in CARE’s staff participation does not result in an impressive cost/benefit outcome. These reasons for abandonment of the raised fields These interpretations provide evidence that although highlight the fact that raised fields were not a structural the benefits of applying traditional knowledge to an eco- part of agricultural life in Puno before their rehabilitation by nomic sector can potentially outweigh the costs, there are NGOs at the end of the 1980’s. The Puno case study is nonetheless inefficiencies in the way that the raised field particular in this regard, since knowledge of the traditional technique was applied to agriculture in Puno. Two of these irrigation technique was re-introduced into farmer commu- challenges are a tendency for farmers to abandon manage- nities after centuries of disuse and was not an inherent part ment of the raised fields (which explains the high standard 39133

3 of community life. This characteristic is exceptional: in the observation that raised fields were improving crop yield18. majority of cases in which traditional knowledge is used in These organizations enabled the reconstruction of 500 development, the knowledge is held by community mem- hectares of raised fields in 72 rural communities in the bers and passed on between generations instead of being Puno region. After they were constructed, operating and reintroduced by exterior research or development organiza- maintaining the systems became the sole responsibility of tions such as Erickson’s archaeological team. This excep- the farmers who benefited from using the technology.19 tional status of the Puno case study may account for a However, in the case of both CARE’s and PIWA’s large part of why raised fields were often abandoned. involvement, projects were subsidized by a combination of Based on these facts and the results of data set IV governmental and international funds20, which led to concerning CARE’s financial contributions toward rehabili- farmers remaining dependent on development organizations tating raised fields, it becomes apparent that NGO partici- to finance their raised field agriculture21. Provided with the pation in applying traditional knowledge to development expectation that the funding institutions would continue to implies certain challenges that need to be accounted for. fund these projects, there was limited motivation from the For example, NGOs failed to provide farmers with indi- farmers themselves to consolidate their knowledge of how vidual incentives for rehabilitating the raised fields. A raised fields must be built and managed. The predominance USAID program provided surplus food, which was given to of institutional investment over individual sacrifices to make farmers in exchange for participating in raised field devel- the construction of raised fields possible, meant that when opment projects11. In the mid-1980s the government of the outside funds were suspended there was not a suffi- Peru encouraged rehabilitating raised fields using a system ciently solid foundation in the community for the raised by which farmers contributed their labor to building the fields to be maintained. fields for a low daily wage. To supplement this low income, CARE and PIWA have now ceased managing raised the payment of additional incentives (food, tools and seed) field rehabilitation in Puno, largely due to lack of continued ensured the farmers’ participation in projects, thereby funding from their respective international and governmen- 12 creating competition between development agencies . tal sources22. Both the abandonment of raised fields and However, as a result of this system, farmers ended up in a the inefficiencies of NGO participation in Puno demon- position where they were working for a development strate that traditional knowledge is more likely to be agency or NGO rather than for their own farming enter- beneficial to local economic growth if it is maintained prise. It is therefore not surprising that most of the rehabili- within the community itself rather than promoted by tated raised fields that were abandoned in the 1990’s had detached organizations. Ultimately, educating each new been constructed by communities or by large groups of generation in the community on its traditional knowledge 13 farmers working together and not individually . In the can optimize the potential for this knowledge to contribute community projects, “poor organization and leadership, to development solutions. internal tensions, and land tenure problems within commu- nities worked against long-term sustained commitment to communal farming of large raised field plots”14. This Endnotes happened because individual farmers were not educated on 1 Erickson, Clark, “Agricultural Landscapes as World the potential value that the raised fields had for their crops, Heritage: Raised Field Agriculture in Bolivia and Peru”, in so they lacked individual incentive to implement them. Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to the These facts led to adverse results in managing the raised Conservation of the Built Environment, Ed. Jeanne- field projects, in spite of the irrigation’s potential to increase Marie Teutonico and Frank Matero, Getty Conservation yields substantially. In response to these difficulties, the Institute, Los Angeles, 2003, pp. 181-204. “Project for the Rehabilitation of the Andean Waru Waru 2 http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik19-2.htm 15 Region” (PIWA, by its Spanish acronym ) initiated its 3 Ibid. activities in August 1989: through a community outreach 4 system, PIWA provided technical and scientific knowledge Erickson, Clark and D. Brinkmeier, “Raised field to sustain the operation and dynamic of raised field sys- rehabilitation projects in the northern basin”, tems.16 PIWA incorporated various local organizations such unpublished report to the Interamerican Foundation, as rural communities, mothers clubs, families and schools, Washington, D.C., 1991. to spread knowledge of raised field technology throughout 5 Informe Final del Seminario-Taller sobre Tecnologías the communities.17 A few Peruvian governmental organiza- Alternativas para Aumentar la Disponibilidad de Agua en tions also provided subsidies to PIWA, as a result of the América Latina, Lima, Peru, 19-22 Sept. 1995, OAS/ 39133

4 UNEP. See also Tapia, Mario E. and Mairano Banegas, 12 Erickson, Clark and D. Brinkmeier, “Raised field “Human Adaptation to a High-Risk Environment: rehabilitation projects in the northern Lake Titicaca basin”, Camellones or Waru Waru: Traditional Agricultural Tech- unpublished report to the Interamerican Foundation, nology of the Peruvian Andes”, Journal of Farming Washington, D.C., 1991. Systems Research-Extension 1 (1): 93-98. 13 Erickson, Clark, “Agricultural Landscapes as World 6 Kolata, A.L., O. Rivera, J.C. Ramirez, and E. Gemio, Heritage: Raised Field Agriculture in Bolivia and Peru”, in “Rehabilitating raised-field agriculture in the southern Lake Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to the Titicaca basin of Bolivia”, in and Its Hinter- Conservation of the Built Environment, Ed. Jeanne- land: Archaeology and Paleoecology of an Andean Marie Teutonico and Frank Matero, Getty Conservation Civilization, Vol. 1, Agroecology, ed. A.L. Kolata 203-30, Institute, Los Angeles, 2003, pp. 181-204. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. 14 PIWA or PIWANDES: Proyecto Interinstitutional de 7 PIWA, Priorización de las Áreas Potenciales para la Rehabilitación Waru Waru (de los Andes) reconstrucción de waru waru en el Altiplano de Puno, 15 This was done with the financial support of the Swiss Programa Interinstitucional de Waru Waru, INADE/PELT- Agency for the Development and Cooperation COTESU, Puno, Peru, 1994. (COSUDE). 8 A more complete analysis can be found in the author’s 16 Ibid. master’s thesis, “Using traditional knowledge in economic 17 Among these were the Instituto Nacional de development: The impact of raised field irrigation on Investigación Agropecuaria y Agroindustrial (INIAA), the agricultural production in Puno, Peru”, dir. Dr. Patrick Centro de Investigación Agropecuaria Salcedo (CIAS) and Messerlin, Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (GEM), the Centro de Proyectos Integrales Andinos (CEPIA). June 2006. 18 Source Book, IETC Technical Publication Series, 9 Erickson, Clark, “Agricultural Landscapes as World UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre, Heritage: Raised Field Agriculture in Bolivia and Peru”, in Osaka/Shiga, Japan, 1997. Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to the Conservation of the Built Environment, Ed. Jeanne- 19 in large part the Netherlands, with the support of the Marie Teutonico and Frank Matero, Getty Conservation NUFFIC or Netherlands Organization for International Institute, Los Angeles, 2003, pp. 181-204. Cooperation in Higher Education. See www.unesco.org/ most/bpik19-2.htm 10 Erickson, Clark and D. Brinkmeier, “Raised field rehabilitation projects in the northern Lake Titicaca basin”, 20 Middleton, M., interview with Jaime Villena, Executive unpublished report to the Interamerican Foundation, Director for PIWANDES, Feb. 2006. Washington, D.C., 1991. 21 Ibid. 11 Garaycochea, I., “Community-based organizations and rural development with a particular reference to Andean peasant communities”, Master’s thesis, Reading University, Reading, England.

This IK Note was written by Melisande Middleton, graduate of Stanford University and the Institut d´Etudes Politiques de Paris, with a specialization in international economics. If you have questions, please email [email protected].