On April 28th, a ceremony called the Native Potato Festival was held in the community of Lares Ayllu, Chañao, located in the province of Calca, district of Lares in Cusco. This event, which seeks to give sustainability to the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity (ABD), was carried out within the framework of the GEF-Agrobiodiversity-GIAHS Project of the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agricultural Development and Irrigation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Profonanpe, in alliance with the District Municipality of Lares.
The Native Potato Festival stands out for its intercultural approach, under which the components of traditional agricultural systems are supported, from the cultural landscape in its entirety, to the management of crop seeds. These processes are carried out by farming families and peasant communities.
In this context, the GEF Agrobiodiversity-GIAHS Project plans in its Annual Operational Plan 2021 to support the strengthening of activities and events that allow the revaluation of traditional agricultural activities, the mechanisms of access, regeneration and adaptation of seeds, as well as to propose local mechanisms for the revaluation of traditional practices such as bartering and seed exchange.
It is expected that this activity will also contribute to obtain the lists of native potato cultivars, one of the requirements for the preparation of the technical dossier for the declaration of the Lares district as an Agrobiodiversity Zone.
