The Key Role of Cultural Preservation in Maize Diversity Conservation in the Argentine Yungas

Abstract

Farmers' decisions on what to grow and why can contribute in understanding the conservation of agrobiodiversity. Culture and ethnicity are indicated as first-class factors leading preservation of heirloom cultivars but this has been little considered in studies examining factors that influence the loss or preservation of agrobiodiversity. We propose that corn's ethnotaxa of less diverse uses, which are also key partners in local cultural reproduction, are usually cultivated by a few households. We analyse if there is a relationship between uses and richness of cultivated ethnotaxa at household level and describe corn's medicinal and ritual uses. We found 25 cultivated ethnotaxa, heterogeneously distributed in the region, and we also found that ethnotaxa with less diverse uses are cultivated in fewer households. We identified that, at regional scale, richness is related with food use diversity. The most frequently cited medicinal uses were urinary and tract infections, diarrhoea, and liver disorders. Medicinal recipes involve combinations with other elements. Maize is an indispensable resource in the rituals that propitiate productive activity, to augur prosperity or misfortune according to signals. We have identified the vulnerability in preserving the richness of corn in the region and the factors that shape its cultivation at different scales.

Pursuing the Potential of Heirloom Cultivars to Improve Adaptation, Nutritional, and Culinary Features of Food Crops

“…The decline of the farming population, combined with a lack of cultural continuance in family seed-saving traditions, however, threatens the ability of communities to maintain this crop biodiversity [7]. Culture and ethnicity also play an important role in preservation of heirloom cultivars [37][38][39][40].…”

‘La yaquispala’: prácticas locales, memoria y conservación

“…Esta propuesta de conservación podría considerarse afín con lo que plantean autoras como Nazarea (2006) y Maffi (2010b), para quienes conocimientos y prácticas son indisociables de la biodiversidad y por lo tanto de su conservación. En concordancia con estos abordajes se han llevado adelante en nuestro país numerosos trabajos desde la etnobiología (Hilgert et al, 2013;Riat & Pochettino, 2014;Bonicatto et al, 2015;Eyssartier et al, 2015;Martínez & Manzano-García, 2016). Sin embargo, en la práctica la elaboración de listas, la evaluación de amenazas sobre las especies vegetales, así como las medidas asociadas, demuestran que es otra la noción de conservación puesta en juego.…”