Cultivating Diversity: Field Scattering as Agricultural Risk Management in Cuyo Cuyo, Department of Puno, Peru

By Carol Goland, 1993.

Chapter 3 - The Andean Environment and Agricultural Ecology

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The distance separating vertically arranged environmental zones is seen as fundamental in shaping the settlement organization and economic strategies of Andean communities. In the compressed form of verticality, communities are located near the puna/valley juncture, in order to have direct access to both herding and agricultural lands. In contrast, in the more gently sloped valleys where the extended form of verticality predominates, the more specialized communities are evenly dispersed throughout the valley gradient.

Several authors have offered further addenda to the verticality model. Rhoades and Thompson (1975) suggest that two adaptive strategies can be identified in alpine areas. The first, "generalized" strategy, echoes Brush's "compressed" type: through agropastoral transhumance, a single population directly exploits a variety of ecozones at differing elevations. In the "specialized" strategy, populations directly exploit only a single zone and develop and maintain extensive trade relationships with the equally specialized populations of other zones. Forman (1978) suggests that in addition to Brush's three types of verticality, a fourth may also be identified. This is the "mixed" form, which involves direct access to two or more vertical ecozones, combined with indirect access to the products of other zones through exchange or commercial marketing.

It is worth noting that by proliferating types of "verticality" the variations have seriously diluted Murra's original formulation, which stressed direct control of a maximum number of production zones, even if intervening territory was not within the boundaries of the polity. As Orlove and Guillet (1985) point out, these are concepts difficult to define. In practice, what has been an instance of "access" for one Andeanist has been seen as violating the notion of self-sufficiency by another (for example, the market place purchase of goods from distant zones). Despite these qualifiers, the model of verticality has been a potent force directing research in the Andes over the last two decades. Its confirmation has testified to the continued viability of an exploitation pattern rooted in the Andean past, and has engendered debate on a number of related topics (especially, the primacy of ecological versus ideological factors in accounting for its origins and perpetuation).

There are important differences between the contemporary cases and the ethnohistorical reconstruction of Murra. In the contemporary cases the socioeconomic organization and ideal of self-sufficiency through verticality is expressed at the community and household levels, while in the pre- and early post-Conquest cases studied by Murra it was the ethnic group (señorío) (Brush and Guillet 1985). Mayer (1985) warns that the modern-day examples of village-based verticality cannot be considered a scaled-down version of the prehispanic pattern. Previously, villages were but one component of the system which included the ethnic group (señorío) as well as the household.

Examination of verticality at times has been swamped by the efforts to create a typology of it. Nonetheless, the recurrent pattern of community and household strategies geared to a variety of altitudinal zones underscores the importance of the concept of verticality as a native Andean solution to local ecological conditions (Brush 1976). If, as Brush cogently argues, verticality is some sort of solution, than we must ask what is (are) the problem(s) it attempts to solve. As numerous authors have argued, the goal of traditional Andean production is the provisioning of a secure food supply (Guillet 1981a; Brush and Guillet 1985; Brush 1982). Indeed, this is the goal of all subsistence systems (Morlon 1981). Given the specific environmental conditions and constraints of a fragile tropical mountain ecosystem such as the Andes, this goal is met through diversification. In a setting such as the Andes--where steep gradients and other factors create multiple micro-ecological niches--a strategy of verticality is the inevitable result of diversification.

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Subsistence security, then, is the goal. Diversification is the strategy to ensure it. And verticality is simply the most efficacious (perhaps inevitable) means of diversifying in a steeply graded environment such as the Andes.

ECOLOGY AND PRODUCTION IN THE ANDES

At the start of the last decade, Salomon (1982) reviewed the emergence of ecologically informed analyses in Andean studies. Two decades of research in the altiplano village of Nuñoa produced a detailed account of the biological and cultural adaptations to an energy-limited, high altitude environment (Baker and Little 1976). Studies of lower-lying productive zones also have been guided by principles of cultural ecology (Gade 1975; Webster 1971; Yamamoto 1982) but have not matched the rigor or multidisciplinary breadth of the Nuñoa study. Most treat the environment as a static backdrop, or acknowledge its highly differentiated and unpredictable nature without explicit analysis of these qualities. Salomon (1985:525) concluded that "In formulating the question of 'ecological complementarity' we have used the word 'ecology' in a colloquial sense, since in reality little analysis of biotic interactions have been undertaken nor much use made of the ecosystemic perspective."

Of course, not all research in the Andes has been oriented by ecological concerns. Brush and Guillet (1985) note that there are three somewhat distinct schools of thought in the Andes. One is termed the "culturalist" school. Investigators working within this framework argue that features of production and economic organization are the result of the continued operation and importance of pre-Conquest patterns of thought and beliefs. Adherents of the "political economy" viewpoint see such patterns as the products of dominance by local elites and, ultimately, international capitalism. Within the "adaptationist" orientation, household and community production are analyzed as subsistence strategies developed to meet local and regional environmental conditions. This research follows the "adaptationist" line of explanation.

Micro-level variation: topoclimates

The Andean region generally is conceptualized as a series of vertically stacked macroclimates with distinctive vegetation characteristics. This under-represents the actual degree of diversity encountered by Andean farmers, whose world is of a scale measured in tens of meters rather than tens of kilometers. Microclimatological differences are created by extreme differences in topography:

In mountain systems with abrupt and irregular relief, horizontal surfaces are either reduced to small areas or are nearly inexistent. Under such circumstances, the concept of regional climate loses most of its value, since the weather conditions recorded at any given site represent, at best, a small area around that site. Several dozen meters away from the recording station, differences in elevation, in slope, or in topography may induce significant changes in climatic conditions. In this way, topoclimates become ecologically more meaningful than regional climates (Sarmiento 1986:39).

Sarmiento indicates that there are three primary factors that define topoclimates: slope aspect, slope gradient, and relative topographic position. Aspect modifies topoclimates with respect to solar radiation and soil temperature (Barry 1979, 1981). In general, in tropical mountain areas east-facing slopes have higher maximum temperatures. Clear mornings often

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give way to cloudy afternoons. Thus east-facing slopes receive direct exposure to the sun in the mornings, while by the time west-facing slopes are in direct sun, the sky has clouded. East-facing slopes will also have lower minimum temperatures, since they are drier (a result of greater insolation) and being drier, their ability to retain warmth is reduced. These factors may produce significant differences in biotic communities, frost frequency, and land use (Lauer 1984).

The effect of slope gradient is not well known. Sarmiento (1986) suggests that in tropical mountains gentle slopes should receive more direct sunlight than either horizontal surfaces or steep slopes. This factor may not be constant; some data suggest that slope differences in soil temperature decrease with altitude (Barry and Van Wie 1974). Ground cover is also an important determinant of soil temperature. Relative topographic location is a strong influence on precipitation, since windward slopes receive more rainfall than those that are leeward. Such differences will be compounded by the orientation of air mass movement.

Studies of topoclimates in the Andes are rare (though see Lauer 1984), but the applicability of the idea is clear. In tropical mountain areas, slope gradient and aspect combine to produce complex micro-ecological zonation with respect to solar insolation and retention, wind exposure, erosion, precipitation receipt, run-off or retention, natural plant cover, and frequency of frost. Location on a valley bottom will exacerbate frost severity and periodicity due to cold air inversion. Anthropogenic land modifications create further micro-ecological differentiation. The net result of all of these factors is that human populations in the Andes interact with an environment of extreme heterogeneity. This heterogeneity arises both from (1) the compression of altitudinally distributed ecological belts (as described by Troll [1968] and Pulgar Vidal [1987]) and (2) within each belt, micro-ecological zones which are the result of topoclimate differences.

The Concept of Production Zones

Mayer (1985) stresses that superimposed on the environmental differences recognized by natural classification schemes are man-made production zones, which he defines as "a communally managed set of specific productive resources in which crops are grown in distinctive ways" (ibid:51). Communal management extends to infrastructural features (irrigation canals, terraces, etc.), the allocation of certain resources (e.g., irrigation water), and mechanisms for rule-making to enforce regulations. Communal management is complemented by household rights to these resources.

Production zones are related to the natural zonation of the mountain valley, but do not necessarily correspond precisely to clearly defined vegetation zones. There is a "subjective ecology" (Vallee 1971) at work here, one that is intimately related to the distinction between "absolute" and "effective" limits. Generally speaking, the former describes a larger area than the latter. Absolute limits are relatively fixed (though see Cardich [1985] for discussion of long-term fluctuations in agricultural limits). Effective limits may be subject to a good deal of contraction and expansion. These limits are drawn by communities in the choices they make regarding land use and cropping, that is, through on-going definition of production zones.

Effective limits are the result of economic decision making. For example, the absolute lower limit of potato production in the Andes is much lower than is usually found. In many communities the decision to devote these lower lands to maize cultivation has displaced potatoes to higher altitudes. In the Cañete Valley, maize was once grown as high as 3600 m. Its production was so highly valued that the population was willing to invest in all of the infrastructural costs necessary to extend the effective limits of this crop, especially, the

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construction of irrigation works (Mayer 1985). Production zones are cultural constructs, "technological solutions which bridge the gap between desired crops and the local environmental conditions that favor, limit, or impede production" (ibid:48). Unlike the broadly defined agropastoral zones, production zones are community specific and communally defined.

The Household and the Community

Households and communities--and their complex inter-relationships--have emerged as the fundamental axes of the contemporary Andean agropastoral peasant economy. Many authors have made the distinction between the household and supra-household spheres of production (Brush and Guillet 1985; Mayer 1979), for both are important aspects of contemporary Central Andean social organization and production.

The household may be defined by the common residence of its members and by their pooling of resources into a single production and consumption unit (Orlove and Custred 1980). The household makes decisions about the allocation of resources (labor, land, other capital) to the productive process. Autonomy in the decision making process, however, is not necessarily matched by complete self-sufficiency, primarily due to the potential for shortfalls in critical resources. The nature of such shortfalls is frequently linked to the development cycle of the household itself. Nascent households have adequate labor supplies but may lack land. More mature households may hold sufficient land to meet consumption needs, but have a high consumer:producer ratio and require labor inputs from beyond the household. Factors external to the developmental cycle of the household (e.g., differences in wealth) further compound this variation. The specific needs of households give rise to a variety of links between households. Such alliances tend to be durable, creating long-term coalitions of mutual-assistance and cooperation.

The community is defined as a recognized set of households that is associated with a bounded territory and which claim rights to it (Orlove and Custred 1980). Households within communities retain much of their autonomy in production decision making. Communities corporately defend themselves from external threats and coordinate the activities of member households, including sectorial fallowing, transfer of land rights, etc.

Mayer (1979) characterizes Andean production as a "dual decision making system." Both households and the larger community are fundamental, and their inter-relationship is essential to understanding the management of resources such as land, labor, and water. In one sense, the distinction can be made between household use of resources, and community control of the same. This distinction is most apparent in the utilization and management of land resources in Central Andean peasant agricultural regimes. Land cannot be alienated from the community. In many communities, cropping land is redistributed annually to resident households, which thus enjoy temporary usufruct rights to it. In other communities, heritable private ownership has replaced this redistribution, although all exchanges of land must still remain within the community. Community membership permits access to resources which, de facto, are managed as an estate by the community for its members.

Whatever the specifics of the land tenure system, households are the basic unit of production. Decisions regarding the allocation of materials and labor are theirs to make. According to Guillet (1981a) household decisions are geared toward meeting short-term goals while maintaining the ideal of self-sufficiency; in contrast, decision making at the supra-household level is often concerned with long-term production strategies. Chief among the goals in this collective process is the protection of the communal "estate" from outside threats,

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the coordination of land use (especially, the allocation of land for grazing or cropping uses), and the scheduling of the production cycle and, hence, labor.

The distinction of individual use and communal control is seen clearly in sectorial fallowing regimes. Here the community controls access to land (either through yearly allotments or by defining community membership and therefore the right to own land), and coordinates its cultivation and use. The plots of individual families within contiguous sectors of land are all used in the same way at the same time. That is, whole sectors are either planted or left to fallow. During years when the sector is planted, the rotation of specific crops is coordinated, at least within broad parameters. During fallow, the land is usually opened to grazing, and plots otherwise used by individual households revert to the status of a communal resource.

Under this agricultural regime, community-level decision making manifests itself in several ways: (1) in control of the sequence of land use (cropped versus fallowed, and the crop rotation for cultivated plots); (2) by coordinating the onset of planting (and conversely, the termination of grazing rights); (3) by coordinating complex water delivery schedules for irrigated agricultural regimes; (4) by granting usufruct rights for land to households; (5) through community-level work parties for the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure (especially, irrigation canals); and (6) through institutional mechanisms to promote compliance with rules and regulations, and to apply sanctions when they are violated.

Within the bounds of the rules and scheduling set down by the community, households have autonomy in making decisions pertaining to their individual plots. They determine what crop varieties will be planted and in what quantities or proportions; they make decisions regarding the use of additional inputs such as fertilizers; and they allocate labor to agricultural production. Households have rights to seek compensation if crops or land are damaged, if they have met the regulations established by the community. For example, if a crop is damaged by an animal during the growing season, the owner of the plot has the right to make a claim to recover damages from its owner, so long as the plot in question is being used according to cropping sequence agreed upon by the community. If, however, the plot was planted out of sequence in a sector otherwise in fallow at the time, the owner can make no claim. This is one way to insure a high degree of conformity with practices agreed upon by the community.

RISK BUFFERING STRATEGIES IN ANDEAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

Andean agricultural producers must contend with a variety of potential threats to their crops. Unpredictable rainfall patterns, long-term droughts, damaging frosts, and insect and disease intrusions are among the most frequent problems encountered (Browman 1987c; Cardich 1987; Guillet 1981a). Figueroa (1984: 58) argues that "any economic theory which attempts to explain the behavior of the peasant family of the sierra must include as an essential element the problem of risk." Several strategies are used to buffer the population from risk. Many of those strategies observed in the present have been documented in the prehispanic period.

The use of complementary altitudinal zones is a prominent feature of prehispanic adaptations in the Andes. Transhumant movement along the altitudinal gradient may have played a crucial role in domestication (Jensen and Kautz 1974). The integration of diverse altitudinal zones characterized polities of the Middle Horizon (A.D. 600 - 1000) (Browman 1981; Lynch 1983), the Late Intermediate period (A.D. 1000 - 1476) (Earle et al. 1980; Murra 1972, 1975) and best known, the Inca empire. The economic organization of these polities relied on diversified production zones, centralized storage, and redistribution

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(D'Altroy and Earle 1985; Earle and D'Altroy 1982; Morris 1967, 1981). W. Isbell (1978) suggests that the unpredictability of the Andean environment, the buffering qualities of these activities, and the coordination required to implement and maintain them may have been causal in the emergence of increased sociopolitical complexity (see also Morris 1985).

In the Upper Mantaro region of central Peru, investigators have provided detailed accounts of Late Horizon imperial production, storage, and redistribution (D'Altroy and Earle 1985; D'Altroy and Hastorf 1984; Earle and D'Altroy 1982; Hastorf 1983; Hastorf and Earle 1985). Although regional manifestations of the imperial presence in the Mantaro Valley are well understood, here, as elsewhere, household and village patterns of production, storage, and exchange remain elusive (see also Morris 1978).

Information on household and community response to risk is derived more fully in contemporary contexts. One of the most detailed studies is Thomas's (1973) research in the altiplano community of Nuñoa. This study is exemplary in its attention to localized ecological conditions and adaptive response. Thomas monitors energy flow through a household by measuring production, consumption, and energy expenditure. By doing so, he is able to identify sociotechnical, demographic, and biological adaptations to this energy-limited ecosystem. Thomas frames his analysis by study at the household level, the basic unit of Andean production (Brush and Guillet 1985; Orlove and Custred 1980). McRae (1979, 1982) uses Thomas's data to simulate the hypothetical ability of the production system to buffer against drought, a common stress in the altiplano environment. Based on the simulation, McRae predicts that the single most significant buffer from environmental disruption is resource accumulation (which he models as herd size). The importance of storage in McRae's simulation is echoed throughout the Andes by the elaboration of indigenous technologies of food preservation (Brown 1987; Christiansen 1977; Mamani 1981; Rhoades et al. 1988; Werge 1977, 1979).

Exchange relations in the Andes have rarely been analyzed in the context of risk management. Within communities, kinship and fictive kinship ties (compadrazgo) are sources of aid when households suffer shortfalls of labor, land, or goods. Most analyses have stressed reciprocal exchanges in the context of labor and in fulfilling ritual obligations (Isbell 1977; Lambert 1977; Mayer 1974, 1977). Kinship and compadrazgo relations are also important factors in gaining access to land and in intra-community exchange of products (Brush 1977a, 1977b; Guillet 1983). In the Andes (and elsewhere) community cargos and fiestas also have been interpreted as safety-net mechanisms for individual households through the wealth-leveling and redistribution that they provide. Inter-community exchanges (especially, those between herders and agriculturalists) are also based on long-term social relations, often strengthened by ties of compadrazgo. In some cases, trade relations between families are maintained through several generations (Flores Ochoa 1979).

Data from Nuñoa have also been used to model the effects of sharing in a mixed agropastoral community. Weinstein et al. (1983) simulate the yearly energy balances of individuals, families, and extended families, incorporating the effects of different ecological perturbations. They find that with no sharing, the model population dies out quickly. Independent families are unable to survive the impact of a resource stress. With either sharing within extended families, or unlimited sharing within the community, population size reaches the same approximate equilibrium. However, ability to recover from perturbation differed. Populations in simulations modeled with unlimited sharing recovered more quickly. In simulations of restricted sharing, the age-sex structure of the population was more stable. Given the complex relations among different age sectors of the population (especially, in the sharing of labor), this may be an important factor in long-term social and economic functioning. Simulations of herd population dynamics in a pastoral economy also stress the importance of exchange of animals for long-term stability (Flannery et al. 1989).

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Among herders, mobility is a routine strategy to reduce risk. During periods of drought (long-term or seasonal), herds must be moved to areas with locally abundant rainfall, or to areas with permanent water resources where forage is available (Browman 1987c; Palacios Ríos 1977). For agricultural producers mobility is not a routine option: it is a move of desperation. Farmers must be subjected to large-scale crop losses before mobility becomes a real alternative. Although some authors may consider seasonal migration for wage labor a mobility strategy of agropastoral producers, this is more appropriately considered a strategy of diversification.

Diversification in Production

In the Central Andes, the primary mechanism used by households to reduce risk is diversification (Guillet 1981a). It is expressed in several forms (Figueroa 1984; Guillet 1981a, 1983). These include: (1) mixing on-farm and off-farm employment. In this way, risk is spread across different sectors of the economy. Seasonal labor migration is one example; craft production is another. (2) Within the farm, risk is spread across agricultural and pastoral production regimes. (3) The use of several crops spreads risk across cultigens. Further, among each of the native Andean crop types, an enormous variety of genetic diversity is maintained. Within each major crop, risk is spread across varieties, given differences in sensitivity or resistance to particular agroecological factors. (4) Risk reduction is also achieved by spreading productive activities over the landscape. On a broad scale, this is a result of communal control of multiple ecological zones, distinguished by altitude. At smaller scales, this diversification appears in the scattering of fields, even within the same agroecological zone. I discuss each of these interrelated aspects of diversification in turn.

MIXING EMPLOYMENT OPTIONS

In many Andean households, labor is divided between farming and off-farm activities. The latter are often in the form of seasonal migration, but other wage-earning opportunities (craft production, small enterprises) are also common. This form of diversification spreads risk over different economic spheres (Guillet 1981a). In addition, these activities provide wages--a form of storage--that can be saved for later emergencies (Collins 1984). Several researchers discuss how these activities have disrupted traditional social relations. Brown describes how seasonal migration to coastal cities from the altiplano has eroded traditional forms of labor exchange. Collins (1986, 1988) describes a similar situation for altiplano residents of Huancan, who migrate seasonally to the eastern Tambopata Valley where they engage in commercial coffee cultivation. Collins (1988:166) warns that "the activity that makes highland production necessary (because of the inadequate remuneration coffee provides) weakens the relations upon which continuation of that production largely depends" (i.e., networks of kin and community relations). Recharte (1990) provides a contrasting case for Cuyo Cuyo.

AGRICULTURE AND PASTORALISM

Dependence on both agriculture and pastoralism is characteristic of many Andean communities occupying the Tuber Zone (Guillet 1987; Orlove 1977). These two resources cannot be viewed as independent production systems, one providing meat and the other potatoes. Indeed pastoralism seems to provide only infrequent direct dietary input. Herd animals are eaten only on special occasions (fiestas) or opportunistically (accidental death). Nonetheless, their importance to the overall household economy cannot be overemphasized.