Agricultural Landscapes and Ancient Crops in the Southern Andes (Bolivia, Argentina).

P. CRUZ ; R. JOFFRE; T. WINKEL

París

Workshop; LandUse6k meeting, Putting History to Work on Climate Change; 2015

University of Chicago Center in Paris

One of the current debates regarding quinoa cultivation revolves around the inclusion of alternative production models that are egro-ecologically and socially sustainable. One vast source of information for this debate can be found in the pre-Hispanic agricultural surfaces, those common and constitutive landmarks of Andean landscapes that are always particular to a region, relief, or specific environment. This article seeks to contribute to this debate by presenting and analyzing via a comparative approach, the pre-Hispanic agricultural systems present in the Inter-Salar region (in the Department of Oruro, Bolivia), one of the principal centers of quinoa production today. Our results reveal two productive agricultural models that are markedly different. While in the Inter-Salar region dry-farming agricultural systems composed of small productive surfaces predominate (like micro-terraces, beds, and short terraces).