Cultivating diversity: Field scattering as agricultural risk management in Cuyo Cuyo, Dept. of Puno, Peru. (Volumes I and II).

Abstract

Agroecological data are used to test and confirm the hypothesis that field scattering is an effective means of reducing production risk in peasant farming communities in the Andes. Andean farmers plant a variety of crops, and plant each crop in several plots dispersed across the landscape. A risk minimization model is applied to a case study on the eastern Andean escarpment of southern Peru to evaluate the costs and benefits associated with field scattering in peasant agriculture. Farmers in Cuyo Cuyo plant up to twenty dispersed fields each year. Most fields are organized in sectorial fallowing systems in which crop rotations and fallowing schedules are coordinated by the community. Potatoes, other native Andean tubers, and fava beans are the primary crops. They are produced at elevations from 3400 to 4100 meters. At lower elevations, temperate climate crops such as maize are grown. Lower lands are not subject to stringent community control and fallow periods are reduced. Total landholdings for a typical family are small: less than one-half hectare is planted each year. Agricultural inputs, especially labor and fertilizers, are large, and yields vary dramatically across plots. The analyses demonstrate that only a small proportion of the variance in crop yields can be explained by the production factors under the control of household management. Stochastic environmental factors not under farmer control are presumed to be responsible for the greatest part of production variance. The risk reduction model examines the mean and variance of yield obtained by cultivating different numbers of dispersed fields. Net yields are reduced 7% on average by the additional travel and transport required to tend dispersed plots. However, as additional fields are added to the household's land portfolio, aggregate production variance and the risk of failing to obtain production sufficient to meet minimum needs are reduced. The use of a risk reduction model provides a conceptual means of dealing with environmental variability as an adaptive response to unpredictable elements. Pooling harvests of dispersed fields buffers households from production shortfalls in an environment characterized by temporally and spatially unpredictable micro-climatic and agroecological factors.