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Acta Nova
On-line version ISSN 1683-0789
Abstract
JACOBI, Johanna; LOHSE, Luis and MILZ, Joachim. The cultivation of the coca leaf in dynamic agroforestry systems in the Yungas of La Paz. RevActaNova. [online]. 2018, vol.8, n.4, pp.604-630. ISSN 1683-0789.
Coca is an ancient crop in the Yungas región of La Paz. Nowadays, coca is mostly grown in monoculture, often on steep and unstable slopes. Coca monoculture degrades the soil, causes landslides, reduces biodiversity, and involves use of agrochemicals that are potentially hazardous to human health, biodiversity, soils, and waterbodies. Meanwhile, some people in the Yungas have preserved ancestral knowledge on more sustainable, diversified forms of coca cultivation, where it is grown together with trees, shrubs, and herbs with different uses. In this study, we identify initiatives and experiences where ancestral knowledge about sustainable coca production was recovered and integrated with dynamic agroforestry techniques. Growing demand for organic coca offers opportunities for incentivizing cultivation methods that are more sustainable and better adapted to climate change while contributing to local families' food security. Certified organic coca cultivation in dynamic agroforestry systems is already practiced by more than 300 families. In view of soil degradation and increasing pressure for new cropland even in protected areas, it could be an option for many of the approximately 13 500 coca-farming families in the Yungas. However, they will require support in terms of management, research, and marketing of organic coca and other agroforestry products.
Keywords : Erythroxylum coca; organic agriculture; dynamic agroforestry; Yungas of La Paz; Bolivia.