Geographies of Seed Networks for Food Plants (Potato, Ulluco) and Approaches to Agrobiodiversity Conservation in the Andean Countries

Abstract

This study is focused on the geographic structure of seed networks in the conservation-targeted Andean potato and ulluco crops. Results demonstrate that farmers of eastern Cuzco are dependent on multiscale networks of seed procurement that are spatially and socially differentiated at the levels of individual farmers and households, intracommunity farm units, the rural community, and groups of multiple communities. Scale-related differences exist in the seed provisioning roles of men and women farmers. Seed flows are shown to support access to diverse food plants and to shape the makeup of seed types as social-agroecological products. Negative impacts could be incurred through current approaches for in situ agrobiodiversity conservation since their models of farm zonation do not account for the multiscale geographies of seed flow in diverse Andean potatoes and ulluco.