Originally published on cgiar.org by:International Potato Center (CIP) on Apr 27, 2006

The International Potato Center (CIP) has repatriated to the Potato Park, which is located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Cusco Department, Peru, 246 virus-free varieties of native potatoes. These are already in full production and  yielding 30 percent more than potatoes that have not been cleaned of viruses.

   At the same time, CIP scientists, helped by advanced molecular techniques, are studying the native potatoes of the Park, because there are strong possibilities that the territory of the Park could be a minor center of  origin of the tuber. About 600 varieties of native potatoes grow in the Park, most of them unique to this habitat.

   CIP is doing this work as part of an agreement signed in December 2004 with the authorities of the Potato Park, to promote the crop, and the use and conservation of the great variety of native potatoes of the Park. The collaboration also guarantees that the indigenous knowledge,  ancestral technologies and  intellectual property rights related to the Park's varieties remain under local control.

   The Potato Park is a one of the few conservation initiatives in the world where the local people themselves are managing and protecting local  genetic resources and traditional knowledge about their health, food and agriculture.

   The Park covers more than 12,000 ha, ranged between 3150 m asl and 5000 m asl. Six Quechua communities live in the Park, the Amaru, Cuyo Major, Chahuaytire, Pampallacta, Para-Paru and Sacaca. Some had been struggling for land tenure for years until the Quechua-Aymara Association for Sustainable Communities (ANDES in Spanish) brought them together in this conservation project.

   Most of the potato production is for self-consumption, although a small part is exchanged for other products through a bartering system that does not involve money.  However, CIP, together with ANDES, is promoting a project to identify market niches at the national and international level, that add value to native potatoes being sold there and so  generate new income for the local people from the Park.

   As well as the high diversity of native potatoes and their wild relatives, the Park also produces several traditional crops, as well as featuring beautiful ecosystems both natural and modified, beautiful lakes, part of an Inca road and other Inca sites, and many diverse varieties of wild and domesticated flora and fauna.

   For further information, contact Paul Stapleton at p.stapleton@cgiar.org