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The purpose of this research activity is to assess the current production system characteristics to inform on possible opportunities and constraints for interventions. Baseline analyses of San José Llanga permitted assessing labor, animal and land resources available and actually used by peasant household farmers. The notions of access and control were developed for this community to distinguish them from formal property rights. This annual report presents the results of the assessment undertaken in the second site. Although there was no additional funding from the SR-CRSP for this activity this was carried out by Silvia Valencia a becaria from Universidad de San Andrés, under the supervision of C. Jetté. She conducted her field work in the community of Okata in Santiago de Machaca, five hours from the city of La Paz.
Problem Statement and Approach.
The purpose of this work in Santiago de Machaca was to identify the main social and economic characteristics of a region where camelid production plays an important role. The methodological approach used was a study case of one community (estancia), named Okata, where twelve households live permanently. Through interviews, formal surveys, informal conversations and daily participation in household and communal activities we obtained information about many aspects of household social reproduction strategies (see 1994 Annual Report). For the full technical report see Valencia and Jetté.
Findings.
Compared to San José Llanga, Santiago de Machaca is characterized by the following features: the temperature is colder and with more limited access to water; cultivation especially of forages crops is more restricted; criollo animal species are by far predominant; access to urban markets is more difficult because of the longer distance and poor road conditions, although its proximity to the Peruvian border may offer other marketing opportunities; land tenure is characterized by the predominance of communal arrangements. In this context, we expected that the overall levels of income in Santiago de Machaca would be lower than in San José Llanga region, and that as a way of compensation off-farm activities would be proportionately more important. We also expected that the rates of migration would be higher (rural household migration is discussed in an another section of this report).
In 1994, we estimated an average household total income of $US 1,140 (compared to $US 1,500 for San José in 1993). Livestock (sales and consumption of meat, wool, cheese, and hides) accounts for 67 percent of total income; crops constitute 13 percent; wages are 13 percent; weaving and petty trade, 7 percent. (non agricultural income in San José in 1993 represented 11 percent of the total). It must be stressed that according to the producers interviewed, the 1993-94 agricultural year was an exceptional good one: "it was like living a dream", some of them stated. With the exception of one schoolteacher, all the male head household members remained in the community most part of the year. When the climate is not favorable for agriculture men travel frequently to work in the cities or to cultivate rice in the warm valleys of the Eastern Cordillera.
Criollo sheep and camelid herding is the basis of the material reproduction of every household. Two adults can efficiently manage relatively large flocks of sheep, alpacas and llamas. According to the number of household members who live in the community and are old enough to work, herding enterprise is combined with cultivation, weaving and various off farm activities in the town nearby or in other regions. To have several children in an household allows the parents to count on the help of some of them a longer part of their life. Links established with people of neighboring communities, through marriage and other type of kin relationships, are another way to access more land and labor resources. Some households succeeded in generating surpluses that are generally invested in the acquisition of some criollo oxen or in the purchase of a piece of land in the city.
The relative wealth of a household also depends on the number of animals that have been inherited and on the quality of animal management. A good herder is the one who takes care to diversify his livestock "diet", by walking through different type of pastures, tightly controlling animal reproduction according to climatic conditions and knowing how to deal with animal health problems. During times of severe drought, a critical factor to get through it is to also have access to lands in nearby hills that usually are not so exposed to these perturbations.
Communal land tenure is very appropriate in the region given the fact that camelids (alpacas and llamas) need to walk relatively large distances and that it would be very difficult to divide the land in such a way that each household would be guaranteed access to critical type of forages and important sources of water. According to the community members (comunarios), range land conditions depend basically on rainfall trends, and they manage to increase animal numbers during the good years whereas they reduce them during the bad ones, a strategy of flexible herd size allowed by market integration. They also control animal numbers keeping very few breeders.
However, the same comunarios recognize that they would need to preserve some areas in order to have more range lands during the driest period of the year (September-November). Up to now they have failed to do so due to the opportunism of some wealthier families. Another weakness of the communal organization in the region is the fact that communal obligations are distributed equally among all the households, irrespectively of the size of their flocks. Therefore when it is necessary to restore the water ponds used by the animals during the dry season, the poorest families are very reluctant to participate, and tensions among households increase. The conflict was finally resolved when a community leader obtain from a state institution food donations to distribute among the persons who contributed to the communal work in 1994. Thus, some aspects of communal institutions need to be reformed in order to improve range management.
The prevailing gender division of labor assigns cultivation tasks to men, and herding and animal care to women. However this division of responsibilities is flexible and depends on the availability of labor at a given moment. The fact that animals are individually owned gives women a strong bargaining power in the household. Gender relationships within households and in the estancia are fairly equal, and women can assume responsibilities in the local organization. However there exist strong restrictions to women participation in regional institutions. These restrictions seem to be due to lack of self-esteem on the part of women resulting from low levels of formal education; they are also related to husbands bias against the wife establishing relationships with men outside the community. Finally it is more difficult for women to participate regularly in regional meetings or courses given their greater responsibilities with animal herding and children care. In this context, the risk of new husbandry technologies being monopolized by men exists if institutions that diffuse these technologies do not take into account women conditions and restrictions.
Problem Statement and Approach
Several factors have shaped the production structure and system of San José Llanga today. The country's national economy, changes in land tenure and the balance between industry and agriculture, and domestic and foreign institutions have been "external" forces that have contributed to shaping production systems and strategies. The purpose of the focus on the history of these changes is to understand how technology is incorporated by farmers. Sociology and economics have undertaken studies on the adoption of sheep technologies in the sixties, adoption of commercial potato varieties in the past three decades, the introduction of the tractor and construction of irrigation and finally the adoption of dairy production. Through our study of peasant households with have found that new technologies are incorporated and activities are added, but not necessarily substitute others. They have also shown, through the work of Jette, that they have shifting importance as commercial products. Sheep production of the seventies was intended for markets, while in the nineties acts as a savings account for household expenses as well as a source of food and energy. Markets play a role in this.
Progress
These studies are part of a research activity that is in progress and will be incorporated into the synthesis. Two papers were presented that have started the process of synthesis. This is an activity that is on-going and is the responsibility of Markowitz, Valdivia and Jetté.
