In the highlands of Cusco, the Quechua communities of the Pisac and Lares district have spent centuries cultivating life under climatic and geographical conditions that, from the outside, seem unviable. In Parque de la Papa (3,350 to 4,619 meters above sea level) and in Parque Chalakuy (2,296 to 5,740 meters above sea level), the Quechua people have built one of the most sophisticated agricultural knowledge systems in the region, sustained largely by the hands and memory of Quechua women. 

This knowledge is not written down in any manual, but it has made it possible to feed entire families for generations. This is how Jessica Villacorta explains it. Jessica is a member of the ANDES Association and coordinator of a project on biocultural heritage and food sovereignty, developed in Parque de la Papa and Parque Chalakuy, with support from the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI) and funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), through its Indigenous Peoples’ Assistance Facility (IPAF).

With a particular emphasis on the role of women as farmers, seed keepers, knowledge carriers, and managers of community economic initiatives, the project emerges in a context where climate change has manifested itself through irregular rains, intense frosts, and prolonged droughts that have disrupted agricultural calendars and negatively impacted the production of vital crops. 

“We know that, due to climate change and industrial food systems, there are many risks to the quality of life in these communities,” explains Tammy Stenner, who provides methodological and communication support for this ANDES Association project. “There are many factors influencing the preservation of practices that we know are resilient, better for health, and better for the environment,” she adds. The conservation of agricultural diversity—which includes 1,367 varieties of native potatoes, among them mashua, oca and olluco in Parque de la Papa, and 95 ecotypes of corn—needs a broad approach that includes territorial rights, environmental protection, preservation of knowledge, traditional practices and economic opportunities for indigenous communities.

In this regard, the women of Parque de la Papa and Parque Chalakuy have begun to integrate their traditional knowledge with new needs and technologies for the conservation and development of their own biocultural economy.

As Jessica explains, capacity building has involved reviving food knowledge related to goods that had been displaced. In culinary workshops they have organized, women learn new cooking methods and rediscover local products of high nutritional value some had stopped consuming. One example is Llullucha, a native edible cyanobacterium that grows in high-Andean lagoons, rich in protein and vitamins, which many women had disregarded due to lack of knowledge and the introduction of external foods, or because of how difficult it is to gather them.

Through training provided by ANDES, participants have become aware of the nutritional value of these resources and have reintroduced them into their diets. The revival of these foods also aligns with an approach to food sovereignty in communities with a long tradition of agricultural diversity, aiming to integrate crops adapted to extreme weather.

In the dyeing workshops, women from Parque de la Papa shared their knowledge with women from Parque Chalakuy, learning to obtain colors from the cochineal (a parasitic insect that lives in plants of the genus Opuntia) and other local plant species. Some women began using synthetic dyes due to the availability of industrial supplies and the gradual loss of ancestral knowledge. By participating in the workshops, many women began to remember and value what their fathers, mothers, and grandmothers had taught them, and to recognize the potential and make better use of the resources they have at hand.

In the realm of medicinal plants, the project has promoted the systematization and transformation of knowledge into concrete products such as filters, ointments, and shampoos. Through methodologies like the yupana—a counting board used by the Incas for arithmetic operations—the women reorganize and classify plants according to their medicinal properties, identify possible combinations, and develop new products that can be marketed.

“It’s not exactly a typical business model,” Tammy explains. “It’s a model based on Sumaq Kawsay (good living), where nature is respected and protected.” In practice, this translates into decisions such as not harvesting all available plants, only those necessary, and maintaining a caring relationship with the environment.

The economic component is built, in this sense, on a different logic from that of conventional businesses. The microenterprises that have emerged within the framework of this project operate under the principles of a solidarity economy: profits are distributed, sales shifts are rotated, and the benefits extend to the community. In areas where bartering remains a common practice, the goal is to integrate these practices into a hybrid model that combines income with traditional forms of mutual support.

Jessica recalls the story of Jacinta, a Quechua woman from Chalakuy Park who had learned from her mother how to set fractures but had stopped practicing it because it did not generate income. Through workshops implemented by the communities, with the help of ANDES, her knowledge was transformed into a product with better presentation and greater demand. “Now they call her: ‘Mrs. Jacinta, help me, there’s a fracture, etc.,’” Jessica adds. This led Jacinta to resume an active role as a healer in her community, something that reshapes the perception women themselves have of themselves and their knowledge.

As the project’s main facilitators, Tammy and Jessica explain that many of the participants, especially the older ones, have not had access to a complete formal education, and this influences how they value their knowledge. “At first they say, ‘I don’t know much because I didn’t go to school,’” Tammy says. But by recognizing and valuing what they already know through actual concrete experience, like the workshop where they teach and learn alongside other women, that perception changes.

The results have taken root in places like markets and processing centers in Pisac and Lares, where the biocultural products made by the women of Parque de la Papa and Parque Chalakuy are sold regularly, under their respective collective brands, at prices that reflect the value of the knowledge incorporated. The reception has been positive, and the women are already seeing the possibility of expanding their presence to other markets, improving labeling and obtaining health certifications.

For the ANDES Association, this progress points toward a broader goal: the full autonomy and sustainability of biocultural territories and economies. “We’re here to support them, but the idea is that, eventually, biocultural territories and economic initiatives managed by Quechua women will not need ANDES support,” Tammy says.

In a context where climate change continues to intensify its effects on agriculture and life cycles in the Peruvian Andes, autonomy becomes a vital necessity on the road to adaptation and the way of life of indigenous communities. Every visit to Parque de la Papa and market day in Parque Chalakuy is an opportunity for economic exchange and a meeting point that highlights a deeper transformation: that of women who, by innovating based on their ancestral knowledge, are redefining their place within the Quechua community, building their own responses to an uncertain future.