Research and Development Areas
Grupo Yanapai executes projects to achieve sustainable agroecological systems, having as its origin participatory research that allows the exchange of knowledge, in favor of family agriculture and peasant organizations. The research areas are the following:
This strength of Andean agriculture has been researched and strengthened by Grupo Yanapai as a constant line of action since 1999. Several studies have been developed to understand the local management of these varieties and catalogs of native varieties, which are a tool to strengthen local knowledge. Grupo Yanapai has been promoting, in collaboration with the International Potato Center, new catalogs in the Junin and Huancavelica regions.
Grupo Yanapai has collaborated with the Fredjof Nansen Institute of Norway in participatory workshops on Access and Benefits, according to clause 9 of the International Treaty on Genetic Resources signed by Peru in 2004, in order to provide guidelines to policy makers on how to benefit farmers who conserve genetic resources.
There is a high and unacceptable percentage of children and women with chronic malnutrition in Andean communities and population centers. It makes no sense to work on the productivity of the farms if the minimum requirements for a healthy development are not met, especially if this backwardness has lifelong consequences because the physical and intellectual potential of the person is not achieved.
Grupo Yanapai, together with the villagers, experimented to improve the diversity of the diet and to increase the consumption of key micronutrients such as iron, zinc, calcium and vitamins A.
Among the uses and customs of Andean farming families are the practices related to breeding that are in demand in the markets, which is an opportunity to improve their income.
Grupo Yanapai is working on research to improve natural pastures, planting of cultivated pastures, animal health and the advantages of raising chickens and guinea pigs.
The Yanapai Group prioritizes soil health as a key to sustainability, as it is the primary storehouse of rainwater, carbon and various ecosystem services, and therefore, priority is given to preventing soil degradation due to erosion, overgrazing and agricultural intensification.
Despite the fragility of these systems, the provision of ecosystem services is innumerable such as the primary stores of rainwater, carbon, biological diversity, etc.
That is why the prevention of degradation by erosion, overgrazing and agricultural intensification is one of our priorities.