Implemented in the department of Boyacá, Colombia, since approximately 2000, this solution aims to preserve and promote the cultivation and consumption of tubers through local traditional knowledge to improve climate resilience and enhance the food security of local communities.
The Andean tubers of ibia/oca (Oxalis tuberosa Molina), cubio/mashua/isañu (Tropaelum tuberosum Ruíz & Pavón), and ruba/melloco/olluco/papa lisa (Ullucus tuberosus), usually catalogued as marginal, undervalued or underutilized, have been cultivated in the mountainous areas of Boyacá since pre-Hispanic times, They have been an important part of the food and medicinal culture of the current populations, who have inherited and transmitted from generation to generation the techniques of their cultivation, management and uses, including the phytogenetic material (species and morphotypes). These crops are traditionally produced with agroecological techniques based on the use of biocides and organic fertilizers to maximize agrobiodiversity and diversify production, which is focused on self-consumption, exchange and marketing of surpluses. Because of their great capacity to adapt to different climatic conditions, resistance to pest attacks and tolerance to drought, Andean tubers can be cultivated in different ecological zones distributed between 2400 and 4000 m altitude. These physiological and ecological characteristics, together with their nutritional and medicinal properties, give them a high potential as crops that can reduce climatic and food vulnerability, in addition to strengthening the adaptive capacity of Andean farmers.
This solution overview synthesizes the different local initiatives of the Asociación Innovadora de Tubérculos Andinos de Boyacá (AITAB), which together with other public and private actors, especially academia (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Colombia), have made it possible to revalue the cultivation and uses of tubers through participatory information generation processes based on the traditional knowledge possessed by local farmers. The aim of the activities is to promote the cultivation and consumption of these products as a strategy for CCA and in situ conservation through the reconversion of the conventional-commercial production approach to an agroecological-self-sufficient one, in the municipalities of Ventaquemada, Turmequé and Tibasosa, in the department of Boyacá.
(Por favor consulte el documento adjunto para la versión en ESPAÑOL)