La fertilité revisitée : innovation et crise des agricultures de l'Altiplano bolivien

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5

International audience

English. At the south of Bolivian Altiplano, Intersalar territories represent a symbolic zone for the study of a vulnerable socio ecological system where durability is a stake heighten by the weakening of a rural agriculture dropped into world trade. Intersalar is a desired space despite the demanding environment (cold, aridity, high altitude, salinity, etc.). The great price increase of quinoa and the mechanization of agricultural practices, seen by Aymaras producers as a great opportunity, threaten the fragile stability of an ecological and social system which is influenced by a fertility crisis (yield decrease, soil erosion, increase of conflicts in access of land, etc.). The significant decrease of agriculture/livestock breeding cooperation comes along with an individualization and monetarization of some agricultural practices which transform the conditions of fertility renewal. The capacity of innovation shown by the producers in their modes of renewal of individual and collective fertility management is a core problem for the preservation of the agricultural activity. We propose a critical analysis of the historical movement of the notion of fertility, deeply polysemous, then to inquire the meaning and the stakes in the Intersalar zone. Furthermore, we suggest a critical review of fertility concept in order to show the deep gap between the meaning given by producers and the common sense conferred by the agronomists and the development agents. These theoretical and empirical results invite of new paradigms to think fertility and to support the Aymaras producers of the Intersalar area.