Sierra Productiva
In collaboration with the "Instituto para una Alternativa Agraria - IAA" (Institute for an Alternative Agriculture), the Siemens Stiftung is engaged in the Sierra Productiva project aimed at sustainable development for the indigenous rural population in the Canas/Cusco highland regions of Peru and in the Ica/Pisco coastal regions. All in all, 370 families from 11 communities and 3 districts are participating in the multi-stakeholder project.
Based in San Agustín in Cusco, the institute began to develop models for sustainable development in rural areas in 1994, aiming to help structurally weak areas shift from a subsistence economy to a profit economy. This resulted in the integrated "Sierra Productiva" approach in which small farmers implement 18 simple technical innovations in the course of a three-year cycle. Small-scale agricultural production is to be boosted by building on Peru's biodiversity. To accelerate their development, organized groups of farmers make autonomous decisions about their future planning and the actions that need to be taken.
This approach will help to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of optimizing cultivation and production methods, ensuring food supply, improving health, and providing education. A revival of lost cultural knowledge and traditions will be combined with the assimilation of new insights. The long-term aim is to develop what are known as "ecological districts". Apart from social and economic development, attention will be paid to the environmentally-friendly use of resources. A further aim is to increase the currently low level of income the famers and their families achieve from selling their agricultural produce.
The Siemens Stiftung is focusing particularly on developments in the areas of water and energy, such as solar thermal water heating and clean drinking water. The efficient storage and use of water and the provision of drinking water are of fundamental importance, making water a key factor in the entire cycle. A further essential aspect is the involvement of the families in developing the model, starting out with the definition of a common vision. Personal contributions and joint responsibility are two of the basic elements behind the collaborative nature of the model, in which other key features are the transfer of knowledge and "learning from one another". This is why the local multipliers, known as "Yachachiq" (a Quechua word meaning "those who know"), play such a central role in implementing the model.
18 innovation steps of Sierra Productiva
Project partners
- Instituto para una Alternativa Agraria (IAA): coordination
- Communities in the participating districts
- ProSynergy, foundation of the Korean company SK Energy
- Pau i Solidaritat Stiftung, foundation, Valencia, Spain
