Project properties
Title Mapping and linking quinoa-based farming systems to landscape in the
Peruvian Altiplano
Group Farming Systems Ecology
Project type thesis
Credits 36
Supervisor(s) Federico Andreotti
Erika Speelman
Examiner(s)
Contact info federico.andreotti@wur.nl
erika.speelman@wur.nl
Begin date 2019/08/01
End date 2020/01/31
Description Information:
Intro
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) was domesticated more than 7000 years
ago in the Andes and today farmers including indigenous Quechua and Aymara
communities are continuing cultivating this crop in the same areas with low input
and organic practices. Thanks to the wide genetic diversity, quinoa has led its
adaptation to different environmental condition. The last 40 years have seen a
great expansion of quinoa crop production and experimentation all around the
world (Bazile et al. 2016) not only for its adaptability but also for its nutritional
values. In the region of Puno, in Peru, smallholder farmers are preserving the
highest quinoa diversity hotspot in the world. This landscape is recognized from
the United Nations Organization as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage
Systems (GIAHS) valorizing the ancestral systems of cultivation known as
Aynokas.

Information:
background
Aynokas allows smallholder farmers to produce quinoa and related neglected
crops, reach food security, export and develop facilities in the local communities.
Cultivating quinoa and NC diversity in situ can ensure the adaptation capacity of
the plants and maintain cultural identity. Farmers in the region of Puno connect
their cultural identity to quinoa and maintain quinoa genetic diversity through
their knowledge and practices. The role of quinoa producers within the mosaic
landscape in Peruvian Andes are the reflection of local biophysical conditions, as
well as cultural and socio-economic conditions that can evolve towards or away
from a sustainable future.


The MSc projects start in August 2019; fieldwork in Puno Peru will be from 20th
October till 20th of December 2019. The project included the fieldwork will be
done together with the supervision of Federico Andreotti, PhD candidate at GRS.

Objectives
- Literature review: Develop a methodology for linking farming systems analysis (i.e. SAFA, participatory or statistical Farm Typology) to Landscape or Foodscape (i.e. GIS, participatory mapping) according to the background of the student.
- Fieldwork: Mapping and documenting farmers’ practices and knowledge concerning spatial distribution, abiotic stress tolerance, diseases and ecological interaction, ecosystem servicesand cultural identity of quinoa and related neglected crops production together with biophysical and socio-economic conditions of the landscape.
- Data Analysis: Link multivariate statistical analysis of Farming System with spatial analysis of the Landscape
Used skills
Requirements MSc student fluent in Spanish
As the MSc Thesis project is multidisciplinary we are looking for a student with no specific
background, but with the willing to develop his or her own approach of the study.