Publisher's Synopsis
From long before the Spanish Conquest, the harsh climate and difficult physical environment of the Andean plateau around Lake Titicaca sustained a rural population much larger than the present one, and with mostly local produce. Academics began studying the farming methods of the ancient, pre-Inca Tiwanaku culture which was responsible for maintaining this population, from the late 1960s, and discovered a complex and unique system of raised fields which could achieve high yields of the main crops. - - Since the rediscovery of the technology, there have been programmes under both the Bolivia and Peru governments and many NGOs, to reintroduce the raised fields and solve the rural poverty problems of the region. This book analyses the programmes, setting them in the context of other processes such as rural emigration, agrarian reform, and the dependency psychology of rural people. - - There are two diametrically opposed main conclusions. On the one hand, the projects have mostly been abandoned and cannot be regarded as a success in western terms, of economics, area used, or visible technology transfer. On the other hand, the knowledge of raised fields has now entered the communities around the lake, and for these people themselves, the programmes are a success. Western evaluation is of failure, locally based evaluation welcomes the revival of ancient indigenous knowledge.
