Abstract
The worlds’ current food production system is focused on a limited number of crops. However, international food demand is increasingly looking for more diversified supplies. In the Venezuelan State Amazonas, the Piaroa indigenous people collect and cultivate several indigenous species with local, regional, national and even international potential. A participatory approach was used to select, in cooperation with these Piaroa people, a list of products for in-depth economic analysis and for introduction in agroforestry trials in a later phase. Seven agroforestry food products of this list were identified as underutilized. Primary data collected through consumer and trader surveys on the local markets and participatory exercises in selected Piaroa communities revealed that the main causes of underutilization are the general lack of transport, processing and market infrastructure in Amazonas; the lack of demand, due to a lack of product information; the lack of market information and cooperation between the different market chain actors; and the low productivity of the traditional slash and burn plots. Solutions to overcome the infrastructural constraints are sought by looking at the example set by a local NGO.
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Notes
As there is no consensus on the exact definition of NWFPs, we use the FAO definition: NWFPs are “goods from biological origin, other than wood, derived from forests, other wooded lands and trees outside forests” (Dembner and Perlis 1999). The focus of this study is on food products only, for introduction in agroforestry trials; therefore, from section “Setting and methodology” onwards we use the more specific term agroforestry food products.
The Cultural Survival Enterprise marketed NWFPs, such as Brazil nut (mixed in ice cream) in North America and Europe in the 1990s (Clay 1992a).
In the 1970s the Venezuelan government’s Codesur program, or program for the development of the South, aimed at sedentarizing and integrating the indigenous people by providing concrete houses and health and educational services in fixed settlements near commercial centers. The Christian missions had started this process of sedentarization in the 1930s–1940s. The increased access to health care led to a demographic transition and a population explosion in the indigenous settlements. Population growth in these permanent settlements was enhanced by an active immigration of indigenous people, attracted by the services in the permanent settlements (Melnyk 1995).
The participatory review focused on agricultural plots. Manaca and seje are gathered from the forest and hence were not mentioned in this process. These two species were also mentioned by Melnyk (1995) in her study on the marketing of NWFPs in the Venezuelan Amazon.
This is because in the agroforestry plot the planting density of yucca will be lower, while the density of agroforestry species will be higher than in the normal slash and burn plots. Moreover, the increased productivity of yucca, due to increased soil fertility, will not in all agroforestry systems compensate for the reduced planting density.
The net value of game, fish and arthropods, considered by Melnyk to be also NWFPs, were subtracted from the total net value to reach this value specific for plant products.
In Brazil, manaca is called açai, and the fruits are harvested from Euterpe oleracea Mart., which is unlike Euterpe precatoria, a multi-stemmed palm.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the financial support from the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Program. In addition, we would like to thank the Guyagrofor team of the Research Institute for Forest Development of the University of the Andes (prof. E. Arends, prof. D. Sanchez, A. Villarreal, prof. O. Carrero, prof. Y. Molina, H. Coronado, J. Santaromita and L. Gillis) for the efforts they have done in providing the results, that formed the basis of this research. Special thanks also go to the Piaroa people of the three project communities for their cooperation.
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Van Looy, T., Carrero, G.O., Mathijs, E. et al. Underutilized agroforestry food products in Amazonas (Venezuela): a market chain analysis. Agroforest Syst 74, 127–141 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-008-9110-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-008-9110-0