Pacha Mama: Grounding the Agrarian Transitions of the Quinoa Boom

In the Quechua language of native highland Bolivian communities, pachamama means Mother Earth. But the pacha in pachamama refers less to an abstract planet and more to the visceral: the ground we walk on, the dirt underneath... [ view full abstract ]

In the Quechua language of native highland Bolivian communities, pachamama means Mother Earth. But the pacha in pachamama refers less to an abstract planet and more to the visceral: the ground we walk on, the dirt underneath our feet, the soils from which the plants grow. Deriving from a cosmovision that recognizes natural entities as animate “earth beings” (de la Cadena 2015), the Andean ideal of reciprocity extends to human-nature relationships. In Quechua communities of the Southwestern Bolivian highlands, quinoa production has historically incorporated a reciprocal relationship with the soil as a respected ally. Indigenous peasants forge a close, even intimate, relationship with the land they plant in, holding extensive knowledge of soils that is inscribed on their bodies. In the past three decades, however, production strategies have shifted considerably as quinoa became increasingly valued on the international market. The adoption of tractors helped these rural communities expand production to meet this new demand, which provided an unprecedented economic opportunity for a region that was long among the poorest in the hemisphere. But extensification and industrialization have shifted how indigenous peasants interact with the land, interrupting the intimacy of past relationships. Recent overproduction has led to significant threats of desertification, lack of soil fertility, and susceptibility to erosion.

This paper examines the changing relationships between the soil and the indigenous peasant producers that tend it, within the context of the agrarian and market transitions of the global quinoa boom. Focusing on quinoa producers in the Salar region of Southwestern Bolivia, this paper argues that neoliberal engagements in combination with climate pressures have caused a re-shaping of farmer-soil interactions; whereas the qualities and proclivities of soils once shaped peasant practices that shifted as needed, new technologies and market opportunities reverse this relationship, such that agricultural practices now shape soils to their detriment.