Investing in the development of South American campesino camelid economies: the experience of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Abstract

The Andean region has three million domesticated South American camelids and one million in the wild, a valuable asset with underused potential for contributing to climate change adaptation, high-quality fine-fibre textiles, and the meat, leather and other industries. Camelid raising is unique in two respects: it is practised mainly at altitudes of 3,000 meters and above, in the fragile ecosystems where it evolved and to which it is perfectly adapted; and it is an asset of the poorest people living in this region. In short, this is essentially an activity of campesinos in the Andean highlands. In the past 20 years, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has invested in bringing together knowers and knowledge. Breeders, fibre sorters, artisans and microentrepreneurs linked to the camelid economy have exchanged and scaled up knowledge, with tangible results. IFAD has also cofinanced their enterprises and initiatives with support from national and local governments, businesses and other sources of cooperation. An estimated US$30 million has been invested in the sector in the past 15 years, generating an impact or incremental value of US$90 million in the pockets of producers. These are only the first steps in the process of developing the camelid economy and its contribution to mitigating climate change and combating rural poverty. In the four countries concerned, the sector could generate three times the current annual sales (US$300 million in the campesino sector and US$1,000 million if one includes the textile and garment industries and livestock sales). Such an increase will hinge on expanding incipient markets for meat (dried and fresh), leather manufactures and livestock by-products, as well as the textile market for vicuña fibre (guanaco fibre is still virtually unused). Knowledge exchanges need to be multiplied among local and international talents, because the thresholds for learning simple technologies and prerequisites to access solvent markets are beyond reach for many campesinos and artisans. This calls for cofinancing knowledge exchanges between subregions and countries, scaling up such knowledge to the majority, and selectively cofinancing the most promising and environmentally relevant initiatives to contribute positively to climate change (for instance, by substituting camelids for exotic livestock such as cattle and sheep in moist paramos or high steppe areas).