Farmer strategies in regional agricultural change: The case of commercial potato production in Oxapampa

Regional agricultural systems are continually constituted and reconstituted by the strategies of individual farmers as they draw upon, and iteratively change, the resources to which they have access, and the constraints to which they are subject because of their personal experience and their membership of a particular social group. One important factor in regional agricultural change is the propensity of farmers to experiment with and change their agricultural strategies. The range of potential experiments is, however, limited by what the farmer conceives as possible. Moreover, the potential long-term success of such innovation depends upon the acquisition of accurate knowledge of the new crop and the environmental factors to which it is subject.

Examining the case of recent changes in potato farming in Oxapampa on the east slopes of the Andes, this paper demonstrates how this interplay between perceived possibilities, farmer experimentation and knowledge of the economic and ecological environment contributed to the rapid rise, and then fall, of potato cultivation. Implications both for the concept of adaptation and for the introduction of new crop technologies are discussed.