The arabesque of local knowledge

363 Pages·2005·5.68 MB·English

THE ARABESQUE OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Potatoes, farmers and technicians in highland Tiraque,
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Promotor
Prof. dr. Norman Long
Hoogleraar in de Ontwikkelingssociologie

Co-Promotoren
dr. Alberto Arce
Universitair Hoofddocent Leerstoelgroep Ontwikkelingssociologie

Promotiecommissie
Prof. dr. G. Durand Agrocampus Rennes
Prof. dr. ir. J.D. van der Ploeg Wageningen Universiteit
dr. P.H.C.M. van Lindert Universiteit Utrecht
dr. Ruerd Ruben Wageningen Universiteit

Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd binnen de CERES Graduate Research School for
Resource Studies for Development
THE ARABESQUE OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Potatoes, farmers and technicians in highland Tiraque,
Cochabamba, Bolivia

H. Andrés C. Uzeda Vásquez

Proefschrift
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor
op gezag van de rector magnificus
van Wageningen Universiteit,
Prof. dr. ir. L. Speelman,
in het openbaar te verdedigen
op dinsdag 7 juni 2005
des namiddags te 13:30 uur in de Aula
Uzeda V.H.A.C., 2005

The Arabesque of Local Knowledge.
Potatoes, Farmers and Technicians in Highland Tiraque, Cochabamba, Bolivia

Ph.D. Thesis, Rural Development Sociology Group, Wageningen University
With references – With summaries in English and Dutch

ISBN 90-8504-140-6
To all despite all

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements xi
INTRODUCTION 1

ONE: Knowledge and tradition: a discussion of cultural
aspects of knowledge 7
1.1 The multiple utterances of knowledge 7
1.1.1 Science, truth and doubts 9
1.1.2 Knowledge and the like in ancient cultures 12
1.1.3 The game-like dimension of knowledge 14
1.1.4 The authority of common sense 15
1.1.5 Knowledge as perception: recursive descriptions 17
1.2 Local knowledge 20
1.3 The Actor-Oriented Approach and the problem of knowledge 27

TWO: Knowledge and modernity: a discussion about
science and technology 33
2.1 On some questions about science and technology 33
2.2 Technology and machine 34
2.3 Socio-technical regimes 38
2.4 Actor-Network theory: a “radical constructivist perspective”
on science and technology 39
2.5 Criticism of the Actor Network Theory 45
2.6 Innovation, transfer and dissemination of technology 48
2.7 A critical view of social sciences’ traditional perspective
on technological diffusion 50
2.8 Technological change and knowledge interfaces 55

THREE: The institutional setting of technological change in
agriculture in Cochabamba 61
3.1 Policy approaches and the issue of agency 61
3.2 An overview of organisations related to technical change in Cochabamba68
PROLADE 69
PROMIC 71
PRONAR 73
CIFP-CSP 76
CIF-SEFO 79
CIFEMA 81
viii
3.3 The course of the institutional endeavours to improve potato cultivation
in Tiraque 83
3.3.1 Early incursions: pioneers and the first knowledge system 83
3.3.2 The era of the warring states: competing systems and discourses 94
3.3.3 Rise and decay of an agricultural knowledge framework 104
3.3.4 The Fall of the House of PROSEMPA 113
Concluding remarks: 117

FOUR: A portrait of the peasant communities of Qoari and Boquerón:
The dynamics of technological innovation 121
4.1 Some geographical aspects 122
4.2 History of Tiraque 124
4.2.1 Some historical references to the communities studied 127
4.3 Social organisation 127
4.3.1 The peasant unions 128
4.3.2 The subcentres 129
4.3.3 The centres 130
4.3.4 The unions of Qoari and Boquerón 132
4.4 The dynamics of technological innovation in Qoari and Boquerón 132
4.4.1 Some methodological remarks 135
4.4.2 Agricultural production and intervention in Qoari and Boquerón 137
4.4.3 Farmer dynamics and technological innovation 140
4.4.4 An attempt of interpretation of the dynamics of technological
change in Qoari and Boquerón 159

FIVE: The (local) knowledge of potato cultivators: a caring
fondness in the heights 168
5.1 On metaphors and their relation with knowledge 168
5.1.2 Farmer’s metaphors for representing potatoes 173
5.1.3 The “dual metaphors” on soils 177
5.2 Peasants and their concern for theory 188
5.2.1 Potato images, notions and meanings 190
5.2.2 Methods of selecting tubers for seed and criteria
for their classification 195
5.2.3 Selection of seed tubers 198
5.2.4 Criteria and forms of classification 201
5.2.5 Forms of soil conservation 205
5.2.6 Organisation of labour in the technical itinerary 206
5.2.7 An afternoon at the harvest on the hillsides to the
west of Qoari (brief ethnographic description) 213
5.2.8 Technology and knowledge in the production of chuño 218
5.2.9 Other uses of potatoes in local knowledge 219
ix
SIX: Knowledge intersections: the contingent and unfinished
reconfigurations of local knowledge 223
6.1 The strategic management of ignorance: the encounter of the expert
and non-expert as an exemplary story of seduction 223
6.2 Reconfigurations 225
6.2.1 What farmers do not see in the soil 226
6.2.2 Potato diseases: good pupils willing to learn 230
6.2.3 The problem of agro-toxicity 237
6.2.4 Gain and loss of genetic variability 240
6.2.5 The food problem of improved varieties 246
6.2.6 Broader reconfigurations in farmers’ knowledge 249
6.2.7 The other reconfiguration: discontinuities in technicians
knowledge 253
6.2.8 The limits of the reconfiguration and some final remarks 256
CONCLUSIONS 259
REFERENCES 279
ANNEXES 289
ANNEX 1 GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION 290
ANNEX 2 METHODOLOGICAL SUPPLEMENT 316
ANNEX 3 POTATO VARIETIES AND REPRESENTATIONS 328
ANNEX 4 FARMER AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND TECHNIQUES 334

Summary 345
Samenvatting 348
Curriculum vitae 351

Figures and tables

Figures
Figure 1: The DESEC Knowledge Information System
Figure 2: The Regional Agricultural Knowledge Framework
Figure 3: Origin of Tiraque communities
Figure 4: Tiraque: percentage of unions according to their affiliation
Figure 5: Structure of peasant union organisation
Figure 6: Modalities over the first and second factors
Figure 7: Clustering of active modalities over the first and second factors
Figure 8: Classification of active variables and households
Figure 9: Distribution of varieties one plot
Figure 10: Opening of a new puruma plot
Figure 11: Farmers’ perceptions about potatoes
Figure 12: Local potato taxonomy
Figure 13: Ploughing: first and second “crossings”
Figure 14: Ploughing: the third “crossing”
x
Figure 15: The “Knowledge Potato” (before intervention)
Figure 16: The “Knowledge Potato” (with intervention). Change 1
Figure 17: The “Knowledge Potato” (with intervention). Change 2

Tables
Table 1: Organisations working with technological innovation in Cochabamba
Table 2: Crops and percentage of households cultivating them in Qoari and
Boquerón
Table 3: Institutional presence by community
Table 4: Potato varieties 1960-1999
Table 5: Histogram of the first 30 Eigen values
Table 6: Description of the first factorial axis
Table 7: Illustrative modalities in the first axis
Table 8: Description of the second factorial axis
Table 9: Illustrative modalities in the second axis
Table 10: Distribution of categories per community
Table 11: Typological characterisation of farmer categories
Table 12: Category 1: farmers chosen for ethnographic fieldwork
Table 13: Category 2: farmers chosen for ethnographic fieldwork
Table 14: Category 3: farmers chosen for ethnographic fieldwork
Table 15: Category 4: farmers chosen for ethnographic fieldwork
Table 16: Metaphor typology according to morphologic characteristics and
other attributes
Table 17: Peasant taxonomy of soils
Table 18: Tubers according to soil type