DECOLONISING DEVELOPMENT TO END HUNGER IN RURAL PERU
Abstract
This paper focuses on the issue of hunger and food insecurity in the Peruvian Andes. It provides a critique of the development industry and argues that the responses it utilises often draw on colonial structures that reproduce oppression. The development industry tends to be driven by the idea that the remedy to hunger and poverty exists in embracing globalisation and marketisation. However, interventions rooted in capitalism can actually exacerbate rather than resolve these issues.Rather than relying on imported solutions from the global North, this essay discusses a process of cultural affirmation and the reassertion of traditional knowledge in the Peruvian Andes. It canvases the decolonising work of a Peruvian Non-Government Organisation (NGO) known as El Proyecto Andino de Tecnologías Campesinas (PRATEC) and argues that contextualised responses that affirm Indigenous knowledge and encourage the co-production of knowledge rather than the wholesale importation of foreign solutions can reduce food insecurity at a local level.
References
Altieri, M. (2002) For an Agriculture That Doesn’t Get Rid Of Farmers. NACLA Report on the Americas. 35(5), 29-34. https://doi.org.10.1080/10714839.2002.11722533
Angé, O. (2018) Interspecies Respect and Potato Conservation in the Peruvian Cradle of Domestication. Conservation & Society, 16(1), 30-40.
Apffel-Marglin, F. (1995). Development or Decolonization in the Andes? Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning and Futures Studies, 27(8) 869-882.
Apffel-Marglin, F. (2002). From Fieldwork to Mutual Learning: Working with PRATEC. Environmental Values. 11(3), 345-367.
Anderson, J. (2000). Gender, ‘Race’, Poverty, Health and Discourses of Health Reform in the Context of Globalization: A Postcolonial Feminist Perspective in Policy Research.” Nursing inquiry, 7(4), 220-229.
Barkin, D., and Lemus, B. (2016). Local Solutions for Environmental Justice. In de Castro, F., Hogenboom, B., and Baud, M. Environmental Governance in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillian. 257-286.
Belliveau, E. (2020). Neoliberal Legacies: Peru, Potatoes and the Challenges of Agricultural Reform [Thesis, Bachelor of Environmental Studies with Honors, University of Connecticut]. USA. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1737&context=srhonors_theses
Bidwell, S. (2020). Cultivating what is Ours: Local Agro-food Heritage as a Development Strategy in the Peruvian Andes [Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, Victoria University of Wellington]. New Zealand. https://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/9134/thesis_access.pdf?sequence=1
Collins, S. (2008) The Hunger Games. Scholastic Australia.
Dizikes, P. (2010, April 16). The Deep Roots of Inequality. MIT News Office. https://news.mit.edu/2010/inequality-roots-0416
Garcia-Olp, M. (2018). How Colonization Impacts Identity Through the Generations: A Historical Look at Historical Trauma and Education [Dissertation, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Denver]. USA. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2487&context=etd
Goldsmith, E. (2002). Development as Colonialism. World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues. 6(2), 18-36.
Gonzales, T. (2015). An Indigenous Autonomous Community-Based Model for Knowledge Production in the Peruvian Andes. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. 10(1), 107-133.
Gonzales, T. (2013a). Sense of Place and Indigenous People’s Biodiversity Conservation in the Americas. In Nazarea, V., Rhoades, R., and Andrews-Swann, J. Seeds of Resistance, Seeds of Hope: Place and Agency in the Conservation of Biodiversity. University of Arizona Press. 85-106.
Gonzales, T. (2013b). Indigenous Biocultural Diversity in Times of Neoliberalism and Climate Change: PRATEC-NACA, An Emerging Paradigm in the Andes. Langscape. 2(12), 34-39. https://terralingua.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Lang_II_12.pdf
Gowdy, J., and Lennox, E. (2014). Ecosystem Governance in a Highland Village in Peru: Facing the Challenges of Globalization and Climate Change. Ecosystem Services. 10, 155-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.08.007
Hartmann, D., Arata, A., Bezerra, M., & Pinheiro, F. L. (2019). The Network Effects of NGOs on Social Capital and Innovation Among Smallholder Farmers: A Case Study in Peru. The Annals of Regional Science, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-019-00944-9
Hellin, J, and Higman, S. (2005) Crop Diversity and Livelihood Security in the Andes. Development in practice, 15(2), 165–174.
Huambachano, M. (2018). Enacting Food Sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand and Peru: Revitalizing Indigenous Knowledge, Food Practices and Ecological Philosophies. Agroecology and sustainable food systems, 42(9), 1003-1028.
International Fund for Agriculture and Development. (2019). Peru. https://www.ifad.org/en/web/operations/w/country/peru
International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. (2016). From Uniformity to Diversity: A Paradigm Shift from Industrial Agriculture to Diversified Agroecological Systems. http://www.ipes-food.org/images/Reports/ UniformityToDiversity_FullReport.pdf
International Potato Center. (2017). Native Potato Varieties. https://cipotato.org/potato/native-potato-varieties/#:~:text=More%20than%204%2C000%20varieties%20of,Peru%2C%20Boliva%2C%20and%20Ecuador.&text=well%20adapted%20to%20the%20harsh,or%20no%20use%20of%20agrochemicals.
Ishizawa, J. (2009). Affirmation of Cultural Diversity - Learning with the Communities in the Central Andes. In Tauli-Corpuz, V., Enkiwe-Abayao, L., and de Chavez, R. (eds.). Towards an Alternative Development Paradigm: Indigenous People’s Self-Determined Development. Tebtebba Foundation, 205-248. https://www.asianindigenouswomen.org/index.php/sustainable-self-determined-development/14-indigenous-peoples-self-determined-development/file
Langdon, R. (2013). Decolonising Development Studies: Reflections on Critical Pedagogies in Action. Canadian Journal of Development Studies. 34(3), 384-399. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2013.825205
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. (2013). Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization. CODESRIA.
Nelson, C. (2019). The Effects of Neocolonialism on Indigenous Peruvians [Thesis, Bachelor of Arts with Honors, Bridgewater State University]. USA. https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1390&context=honors_proj
Nelson-Nuñez, J. (2019). Substitution or Facilitation: Service-Delivery NGOs and Political Engagement in the Peruvian Amazon. Comparative Political Studies 52(3), 445-477.
Orlove, B. (1985). The History of the Andes: A Brief Overview. Mountain Research and Development, 5(1), 45-60.
Pimbert, M. (2009). Towards Food Sovereignty: Reclaiming Autonomous Food Systems. International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED). http://www.iied.org/towards-food-sovereignty-reclaiming-autonomous-food-systems.
Quijano, A. (2007). Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality. Cultural Studies (London, England), 21(2-3), 168-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380601164353
Ramos, E. (2021, 1 June). Due to Greater Demand from International Markets for Peruvian Potatoes, in its Various Species, Midagri Projects that Peruvian Potato Exports will Reach US$ 5 Million this Year. Agraria.pe. https://agraria.pe/noticias/midagri-proyecta-que-exportacion-peruana-de-papa-alcance-los-24514
Richard, G. (2018). On Colonialism and Development – Why the Underdevelopment of the South Cannot be De-linked from the Experience of the Past. African Journal of Governance and Development. 7(1), 6-16. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC-f655b453b
Salas, M. (2013). Voices and Flavours From the Earth: Visualising Food Sovereignty in the Andes. The International Institute for Environment and Development. https://pubs.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/14624IIED.pdf
Segura, N. (2018, November 21). How Neoliberalism Vandalized Latin America. SocialistWorker.Com https://socialistworker.org/2018/11/21/how-neoliberalism-vandalized-latin-america
Tauli-Corpuz, V. (2009). The Papers. In Tauli-Corpuz, V., Enkiwe-Abayao, L., and de Chavez, R (eds.). Towards an Alternative Development Paradigm: Indigenous People’s Self-Determined Development. Tebtebba Foundation, xxiii –xlv11. https://www.asianindigenouswomen.org/index.php/sustainable-self-determined-development/14-indigenous-peoples-self-determined-development/file
Tonet, M. (2015). Race, Power, Indigenous Resistance and the Struggle for the Establishment of Intercultural Education. Alternautas, 2(2), 108-119. https://doi.org/10.31273/alternautas.v2i2.1019
United Nations (2009). State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/SOWIP/en/SOWIP_web.pdf
United Nations (2020). Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/
United Nations. (2021, July 12). ‘Tremendously Off Track’ to Meet 2030 SDGs: UN Chief. UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/07/1095722
United Nations Development Program. (2021). The SDGs in Action. https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals
Vásquez, G. (2011). Small Scale Agriculture in the Peruvian Andes. PRATEC. https://www.pratec.org/wpress/pdfs-pratec/Peque%C3%B1a%20Agricultura%20ingles-vp.pdf
