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

By Carol Goland, 1993.

Chapter 4 - An Introduction to the Communities of Cuyo Cuyo

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In contrast, men and older boys from Ura Ayllu undertake an arduous 5-day long trip to Puerto Maldonado in the Department of Madre de Dios. They reside there for 4 to 6 months of the year, working small squatter's claims. Gold is mined by groups of men associated as owners (dueños), partners (socios), and wage workers (peones). Dueños and socios are frequently brothers or other relatively close kin, while peones tend to be unrelated. Profits and wages are paid in gold. Remittances are sent to wives left behind in Ura Ayllu at least once and sometimes several times during the mining season. These are used to repay agricultural loans and help purchase food during the lean pre-harvest season (Recharte 1990).

Recharte's survey of Ancoccala and Maldonado miners shows that the average net income in 1986 was $564.82 and $947.44, respectively. During the mining season in Ancoccala, cash is used to purchase foods for the family at the weekly market in nearby Oriental. The Ura Ayllu miner will stop in Juliaca during his return from Puerto Maldonado and buy some bulk food items and clothing for the family. In both communities, the cash remaining after the purchase of essential items is used for household needs throughout the year.²⁵In exceptionally productive years, special purchases may be made of tools, house construction materials, and "luxury" goods such as radios, bicycles, and watches. Income from gold mining is particularly important in financing house constructions and in undertaking community cargos and sponsorship of fiestas (Recharte 1990).

In addition to gold mining, several other cash earning strategies are used among the study families. Members of several families have professional or commercial skills which provide them with income within the community. One man (M-1) is a school teacher in the private Adventist school in Puna Ayllu. Both he and another Puna Ayllu man (L-1) also are paid a small sum as health promoters in the community. Another Puna Ayllu man (R-1) maintains a small store with the typical inventory, and ambitiously brings beer to Puna Ayllu in preparation for fiestas. The O family operates a pension (diner) in Oriental on market days, and the head of the household served as a judge (juez de paz) in Cuyo Cuyo. Despite these other activities, almost all work at least part of the season as miners in Ancoccala.

The sale of wool from alpaca and sheep is also a source of cash income in Puna Ayllu. Although most of the wool is used for household needs, surplus may be sold. Women may amass a store of textiles which can be sold in times of emergency or to finance land purchases.

In Ura Ayllu, several men do not participate in gold mining in Maldonado. Reasons vary, but in general relate to health concerns about the tropical climate and the hardships of arduous travel and life away from family. Among those who do not travel to Maldonado (four of the ten men), all use land in the jungle areas below Cuyo Cuyo to grow cash crops. In times past, many Ura Aylleños maintained coca fields located in Valle Grande in the montaña region below Sandia. Among the study families, all but two still own fields there, but these have largely been abandoned during the last ten years.²⁶Families A and F cultivated coca (the latter only very recently). Family J is the most involved of all families in montaña production. The husband remains in the jungle through much of the year, tending cash crops of coca and coffee, and cultivating various fruits (plantains, oranges, pineapple, limes) and tropical crops

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(such as sweet potatoes, avocados, cacao, yucca, and peppers) entirely for his family's consumption. The husband of the G family also travels to this area. Although this family has abandoned its cafetales and cocatales, G-1 continues to work in this area mining gold and collecting incense.²⁷The head of Household E augments earnings from gold mining by offering his services locally as a carpenter.

Off-farm commodity production, principally gold mining, diversifies household economy by spreading it over two spheres of production. Under normal conditions, income gained is used to make routine purchases for the household throughout the year. This income may also be especially important in the pre-harvest period when stocks of fresh foods have been exhausted. Further, these activities provide a source of capital for financing household constructions, marriages, and the undertaking of community cargos and sponsorship of fiestas.

These activities clearly aid in coping with predictable seasonal scarcity. It is difficult to evaluate the degree to which this activity provides a buffer for periods of longer-term subsistence shortfalls. On a year-to-year basis, it is not certain that these activities can regularly provide alternative sources of income should subsistence production fail. For example, in Puna Ayllu, a year of poor crop production due to drought is likely to be a poor year for placer gold mining, since it too is dependent on abundant rain. Of course, if the crop failed due to diseases, gold mining would not be effected. In contrast, for Ura Aylleños the distance and physiographic differences separating their home community and Maldonado imply that rainfall in the two areas could be quite different. But over the long-term, it is also uncertain if these income earning activities provide any insurance against risk. Limited evidence suggests that people do not save gold over long periods of time. Rather, gold is converted to household goods and lands. Presumably these assets could be liquidated if families were in dire circumstances.

Drought is not the only aspect of environmental variability which may threaten subsistence production in Cuyo Cuyo. Other aspects of environment and climate, along with diseases and pests are other important factors in agriculture. In Cuyo Cuyo these sources of variability are buffered by crop diversification and field dispersion.

Crop Diversification

Cuyo Cuyeños cultivate several different crops, and many varieties of each of them. In both Puna Ayllu and Ura Ayllu, the primary crops are potato, oca, illaco, habas, and to a lesser degree, isaño. In the lower lands of Ura Ayllu, maize and lesser crops are grown in association; these latter include calabaza, poroto, yacon, and racacha.

I undertook collections of potato and oca varieties in the two study communities. At least sixty-five different named potato varieties are cultivated (Table 4.10).²⁸Analysis of their genetic relations is underway.²⁹Most native potato variety names are composite terms which

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include a class label (also capable of standing on its own) and a referent (see also Hawkes 1947) (e.g., yuraq imilla: imilla is a class [variety] of potato and yuraq, meaning white, is the referent). Native species obtained elsewhere and improved varieties usually have a singular label. Cuyo Cuyeños recognize potato varieties by morphological characteristics of the tuber such as shape, color of skin, and depth of the eyes.

Potato varieties are valued according to their culinary and agronomic qualities. In discussing culinary properties, Cuyo Cuyeños disparage potatoes that are aguanosa (watery), in contrast to praising those that are harinosa (floury).³⁰The former are used most often for frying or in soup (caldo), while the latter are used for boiling and eaten plain (wayk'u). Cooks also appreciate potatoes which cook rapidly, a reasonable concern given scarce fuel supplies and the lowered boiling temperature of water at high altitude.

The most important agronomic qualities of potato varieties are the ability to withstand cold temperatures and resistance to disease and pests. The hardiest potatoes--the bitter varieties--are almost entirely processed into ch'uño, although small quantities are consumed fresh with edible clays (ch'aku) (see Johns 1990). Although farmers recognize that some varieties are suited to particular micro-ecological niches (i.e., those which are most cold resistant), at the field level, matching of varieties and niches are infrequent except on the grossest of levels (see Zimmerer 1988). Many fields are planted with indiscriminate mixes of all of the potato varieties owned by a family. This in itself reduces risk, since these redundant plantings help insure that a variety will not be lost entirely, as could happen if it were planted in a single field that failed. Farmers also appreciate varieties that hold up well in storage. Poor durability in storage is a particular problem for the chaucha varieties grown in Ura Ayllu (see Chapter 5).

Collection of oca varieties revealed that over twenty named varieties are maintained in the two study communities (Table 4.11). The collection of tubers was examined by Dr. Hugo Blanco (a specialist in oca).³¹Blanco (pers. comm. 1987) suggests that the collection represents fifteen clones. Cuyo Cuyeños value oca varieties according to the same culinary and agronomic properties as potatoes: their flavor, texture, resistance to cold and disease, and storage qualities. And, like potatoes, in the field varieties are not managed singly. They are generally planted redundantly, each variety in several fields and most fields with several varieties.³²

In both communities, three additional crops are grown in the tuber zone: illaco, isaño, and habas. Although I did not undertake systematic study of the varieties of these crops, most families have several of each. Farmers are less discriminating about varieties of these crops

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than they are about potatoes and ocas. For example, if asked about varieties of potato or oca planted, no Cuyo Cuyo farmer would fail to respond with varietal names. This is not the case for the other tubers. When queried about the illaco and isaño planted, in many cases informants failed to name a variety, sometimes claiming that there was only one type (especially for isaño). Isaño has the fewest varieties among the tuber crops (Table 4.12). This crop seems to be disappearing rapidly in Cuyo Cuyo; many families plant none at all. In contrast, varieties of illaco (papa lisa) are more numerous (Table 4.13). The final crop grown in the tuber zone is habas. Although a European introduction, Cuyo Cuyeños see habas as a crop indigenous to the zone, and take pride in the fine varieties they cultivate (Table 4.14).

Maize and other temperate climate crops are grown only in Ura Ayllu. Ura Aylleños recognize two categories of maize (sara): wallis and qasi. Wallis is considered the more "fragile" of the two classes: it is planted in the best lands (those recently taken out of fallow or well fertilized; see Chapter 5). There are several varieties of each of these classes of maize, as well as a number of varieties which cannot be certainly identified as either wallis or qasi (Table 4.15). Wallis is used for toasting (tostado or kancha), while qasi is used for soups and eaten boiled (mote). Most maize is eaten in these forms; very little of it is consumed green or on the ear. There is no corn beer (chicha) made in Cuyo Cuyo.

Field Dispersion

The third prominent form of diversification in Cuyo Cuyo is the dispersion of agricultural fields. As implied in the preceding discussion, families cultivate several fields in each crop. All families plant fields which include potatoes, oca, and habas each year. On average, these crops are planted in 6.6, 4.5, and 4.3 fields, respectively. Illaco and isaño are not planted by all families in every year. For those who do plant these crops, they are planted in 2.1 and 1.7 fields, respectively. Only Ura Aylleños plant maize, and they plant it, on average, in 3.6 fields.³³

In Puna Ayllu, fields are dispersed across two production zones which are ecologically and climatically distinctive. Several fields of each crop are planted in each zone. The farthest fields used by the community are some two hours walk in each direction. In Ura Ayllu, fields are dispersed across 6 production zones; only potatoes are grown in all of these zones. The farthest fields (where maize is cropped) are also about a two hour walk from the community. (Detailed information is presented in the following chapter).

Cuyo Cuyeños recognize that diversification through field dispersion is a critical element in household risk management.³⁴They are well aware that micro-ecological factors (e.g., soil drainage) create important differences in crop response to a variety of climatological conditions (e.g., rainfall intensity and total quantity). They know that while in a wet year a

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particular field may not produce well, the crop in an alternate field with better-draining soils provides security. In addition, field dispersion spreads risk from losses due to pests and diseases.

SUMMARY

The environment of Cuyo Cuyo is characterized by spatial heterogeneity. The year is divided into two seasons distinguished by clear-cut differences in rainfall, minimum temperature, and frost incidence. However, these climatic features may vary significantly and are temporally unpredictable from year to year. Cuyo Cuyeños maintain strategies for coping with both routine seasonal variation and the ever present probability of more disruptive fluctuations. These unpredictable events include frosts during the agricultural season, delayed, interrupted, or insufficient precipitation, crop pests, and diseases.

The most important risk buffering strategies used in Cuyo Cuyo are variant forms of diversification. Cuyo Cuyeños spread their activities over two economic spheres: subsistence production and commodity production, primarily mining. The latter provides cash to cope with seasonal food scarcity. It is less certain that this activity has any impact in risk buffering beyond the annual cycle. Commodity production may be best understood in the context of its important role in the reproduction of the household and community.

The primary coping strategy used is diversification in subsistence production. This is an on-going response to recurrent environmental variability, both spatial and temporal. Diversification strategies attempt to cope with short-term variability, and maintain the flexibility needed to respond to unforeseen future conditions. Within the realm of subsistence production, two forms of diversification are key. Diversity of staple foods spreads risk over crops, and crop varieties, with different tolerances to climatic and other agronomic factors. Dispersion of agricultural fields spreads risk over the heterogeneous landscape. Disease factors may occur unevenly across space; climatic events are spatially patchy, and will be moderated by micro-ecological and micro-topographical differences. Spreading agricultural fields insures that disastrous production in a single locale does not result in disaster for the household.