Strategies to Develop Market Access that Contributes to Resilience in the Bolivian Highlands: Case Study-PMCA and the BAP for Chuño and Tunta

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I evaluate the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) and Bolivian Andean Platform (BAP)'s impact on improving market access for producers of chuño and tunta in three communities in Umala – Bolivia, who are currently participating on native potato varieties’ program. Specifically, I identify opportunities and benefits the programs offer to those who participate, and the barriers foreseen by those who do not. I also analyze critical situations in the BAP that would need to change in order to successfully link potato producers with higher income markets. To accomplish the objectives, I use both quantitative and qualitative methods. Multivariate analyses are applied on data from the SANREM CRSP baseline survey. Interviews on site to producers and BAP’s stakeholders are conducted. The results indicate that native potato varieties’ programs benefit producers by increasing their resilience to climate events. I find that barriers for farmers to participate in native potato varieties’ programs are mainly due to emigration and consequent less labor available at the household. I also find that BAP’s stakeholders offer a price that does not pay off producers’ efforts for higher quality of chuño and tunta.

Stream: Economic Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

My research interests are International Development, Market Chains, Sustainability and the Rapid Rise of Supermarkets Impact in Latin American countries. I got a degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management at EARTH University in Costa Rica. I went back to my hometown in Ecuador and worked on Environmental issues with the Municipality of my city. Currently, I am a graduate student at the University of Missouri, working with Dr. Corinne Valdivia on International Development matters through the USAID-SANREM CRSP LTR-4 program. Our research is focused on the Bolivian Highlands, and I expect to work on the Ecuadorian Highlands in the following years. My education at EARTH University was possible thanks to an endowed scholarship I was recipient of, and my graduate studies are possible thanks to the SANREM CRSP program that provides me an assistantship through Dr. Corinne Valdivia.