Indigenous women in Peru use seed saving and traditional knowledge to combat climate change
Throughout the 10 years of WEA’s work, we’ve seen how women are often those preserving traditional knowledge and shepherding intergenerational knowledge transfer within communities. This is true of both ecological and cultural knowledge, and those two things more often than not are intimately linked.
Seed saving is a wonderful example of this link, and we have learned so much about the preservation of seed and cultural/gender identity through our work with Vanastree, a women-led seed saving collective in Southern India, and our partner in our Seeds of Resilience Project.
This is why we’re so excited by this article from UN Women, which highlights the importance of traditional knowledge farming techniques such as seed saving in Indigenous communities in Peru.
Magaly Garayar works on her farm in Laramate, Peru. The indigenous women of Laramate use ancestral farming techniques intended to yield more nutritious and weather-resistant crops than modern methods. Photo courtesy of CHIRAPAQ
The indigenous farmers of the Laramate district in Peru know what climate change looks like. They saw their crops shrivel in drought and rot under untimely rain and frost. The production suffered and their children were malnourished, until the indigenous women of the farming communities of Atocata, Miraflores, Patachana, Yauca and Tucuta turned to their ancestral techniques of choosing and conserving the seeds and cultivating the land.
The result has been astounding. The fields are now lush with potatoes, olluco, corn, vegetables, fruits and grains, such as kiwicha. The yield is higher and more diverse, the crops are more resilient to frost and drought, and the products are more nutritious.
The women select healthy seeds, rotate the crops to recover soil fertility and irrigate the land more efficiently, using the methods of their ancestors. Since they no longer use agrochemicals, their products taste better and last longer.
“Our land is the only legacy we have. We take care of it as our ancestors would…” says 37-year-old Magaly Garayar, resident of the Atocata community[.]
Read the full post here.