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The Value of Traditional Knowledge on High Altitude Agriculture: Climate Change Adaptation Techniques in Puno, Peru

This poster is one of the posters featured at the 9th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA9) which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, from April 24-30 2015.

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Introduction

The Peruvian Andean communities, living in high windy plains and on steep mountain slopes, surrounded by snow-.‐capped peaks, are severely suffering from the consequences of climate change, In the region of Puno, the mostly rain-.‐fed community agriculture has to guarantee the food security of over a 1,100,000 people, while facing severe climatic events like extreme cold fronts, frost and hail tt and extended droughts.

The Project

During the 2013-.‐2014 agricultural season, we have followed the agricultural practices of elderly farmers (over 45 yrs) of two quechua speaking communities (Korinahui and Carmen Alto), located above 3910m elevation in northern Puno region. We have noted 134 traditional risk-reduction practices related to soil and humidity management that they use in cultivating and conserving 49 varieties of potato and 36 varieties of quinua.

Conclusion

Our study reveals that in Korinahui the farmers followed 85% of their traditional practices which helped them to harvest and conserve 80% of potato varieties and 93% of quinua varieties, meanwhile in Carmen Alto farmers followed 93% of the practices while harvesting 96% of potato and 98% of quinua varieties. The more they follow the ancient wisdom, the more cultigens they are capable of saving.

Poster Contact:

The original poster was produced by Zenon Porfidio Gomel Apaza.

This poster is one of the posters featured at the 9th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA9) took place in Nairobi, Kenya, from April 24-30 2015. The CBA series of conferences focus on the latest developments in community-based adaptation to climate change. The theme of this year’s event was “Measuring and enhancing effective adaptation”, and all the posters presented at the conference were summaries of projects related to the conference theme. For more information about CBA9, visit: www.cba9.org. If you want to learn more about community based adaptation, please visit the GICBA platform on weADAPT.

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