Small-stocks play a particularly important role in many forest margin farming systems. A range of simple management strategies, techniques and interventions allow for improved productivity and better integration of animals into these farming systems. In particular, these interventions benefit poorer farmers. In addition to on-farm participatory research activities, a series...

Prior research has demonstrated that restocking has had little long-term impact on the lives and livelihood of poor pastoralists. Given the forces of change impacting pastoralist communities, restocking projects need to account for shifting community values, aspirations, norms and behaviour regarding livestock-keeping. The objective of this study was to develop...

Participatory rural appraisals identified a number of major limiting factors in farming systems in Bolivia. These included the husbandry of draught animals, their health, nutrition, feeding, and housing, as well as the improved use of draught animals. The project developed, tested and disseminated a range of appropriate tillage and transport...

Interventions to improve the sustainability and nutrition of food can be misdirected when based on assumptions about people’s priorities and level of knowledge. When citizens have the capacity to act on their own priorities — in other words when they have agency — there is the potential to achieve better...

La Brachiaria brizanta es un pasto permanente y amacollado, con tallos vigorosos que alcanzan alturas de 1,5 a 2 metros. El valor nutritivo se considera entre moderado y bueno, si se compara con otras especies de Brachiarias, en relación con su palatabilidad, consumo, digestibilidad y composición química. Por eso, el...

At a recent event in Cochabamba, just before Bolivia went into lockdown over coronavirus, I had a rare opportunity to see how to make products or inputs used in agroecological farming. The organizers (the NGO Agroecología y Fe) were well prepared. They had written recipes for the organic fertilizers and natural...

Los Andes tropicales desempeñan un papel fundamental para la seguridad alimentaria de comunidades en la región. A pesar de que en el pasado la agricultura andina ha permitido mantener una gran diversidad de cultivos, los efectos del cambio climático, sumados a presiones socio económicas de las últimas décadas han degradado...

The use of live-barriers has been shown to both increase productivity and control soil erosion at an individual plot or field level. This is especially useful in the more intensive cropping systems of Andean Bolivia, where live barriers may encourage further intensification. Cover crops, such as Phalaris, can play a...

Some urbanites in Covid lockdown are rediscovering their neglected gardens. Living in or near the city also gives you access to some products that are hard to find in farm country. For example, cabinet makers in the city may be able to give you wood shavings that you can use...

We once had a talented carpenter named Rodrigo, who would come to our house to fix cabinets and build closets. He liked to start in the afternoon and stay for dinner. He was slow and methodical, but his work was always perfect. Every year, this bohemian handyman would take his...

En los últimos años en Latinoamérica se ha reforzado un sentimiento de orgullo y preocupación al mismo tiempo por el Patrimonio Alimentario Regional (PAR) que atesoran sus países, sobre todo en el área rural. Orgullo mostrado en las cartas de restaurantes afamados, circuitos turísticos gastronómicos con identidad, incluso en espacios de...

Bolivian diets have changed significantly in recent years as a result of urbanisation, increased purchasing power, and changes in consumer preferences. Despite this, the food system in cities like La Paz is still based on traditional wholesale and retail markets. Popular dining areas, where cooked food is sold inside these...

A really good teacher will teach you both subject matter and how to explain it to others. Elías Sánchez mentored thousands of Central Americans in organic agriculture. He started his adult life as a rural schoolteacher because he wanted to help people. But he soon realized that rural people needed...

Simón Laura y su hija se ocupan de su huerto familiar en las afueras de El Alto-La Paz, ayudando a garantizar el suministro de productos frescos a las ciudades cercanas

The project team read the names of each subscribed family, to make sure they were all there, and gave each one a new steel pick, a wooden handle and a hoe, so they would have the right tools to plant the trees. Each family also got a bag of bread...

This technology describes the introduction of silvopastoral systems in the dry flats of the Chaco eco-region of Bolivia as a good practice to increase the resilience of cattle raisers against recurrent drought. Silvopastoral systems are a combination of trees, pastures, and livestock. Trees contribute to increased pasture productivity, at the...

This technology describes the introduction of early maturing purple cassava varieties in the Bolivian eco-region of the Beni river watershed. In this area, farmers are used to cultivate white cassava, which has a growing cycle of more than 90 days. Given the long growing period, traditional white cassava often cannot...

This technology describes the introduction of livestock refuge mounds in the sub-Amazonian eco-region of Bolivia (Department of Beni). It is a good practice to increase the resilience of cattle raisers to recurrent floods as well as to ensure water availability in the canals during dry spells. Livestock refuge mounds are...

Soil erosion and declining soil fertility are recognised as problems in the semi‑arid valleys of the inter-Andean zone of South America. These have a particularly strong impact on areas of subsistence agriculture and contribute to poverty inducing processes. The mid-Andes area in particular, which includes Cochabamba and parts of Santa...

En el marco del proyecto FONTAGRO: Agricultores Familiares, Innovación y Mercados. El proyecto se propone contribuir al fortalecimiento de estrategias innovadoras de producción y comercialización de alimentos que permitan retener una mayor proporción del valor generado por los agricultores familiares. El propósito es comprender y visibilizar las innovaciones productivas y comerciales de...