Geography

Farmer knowledge, institutional resources and sustainable agricultural strategies: a case study from the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes

A. Bebbington

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Indigenous agricultural knowledge is seen as environmentally sensitive and is often given a key role in sustainable agricultural strategies for poor farmers. It is noted that famines are evidence for the limitations of such knowledge. This paper examines the issues in the context of a detailed case study of peasant farming in the Oxapampa region, Peru. It attempts to demonstrate that mediating social, economic and ecological relations may undermine the sustainability of an agricultural strategy based on farmer agro-ecological skills: the farmer's knowledge may not be sufficient in some production contexts to sustain a family farm; and the farmers' skills may not be sufficient when contexts change, as when they move between ecological zones or subsistence is replaced by market-oriented production. -M.Dean

Publication Title

Bulletin of Latin American Research

Publication Date

1-1-1990

Volume

9

Issue

2

First Page

203

Last Page

228

ISSN

0261-3050

DOI

10.2307/3338470

Keywords

sustainable agriculture, agroecology, peasant agriculture, ecological sustainability, agroecosystems, agricultural land, farm economics, peasant class, agricultural resources, sustainable economies

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