Semillas Resilientes de Covunco Abajo

The protagonists of this study are a group of market gardeners of Covunco Abajo (a small valley of 200 ha under irrigation) which is made up of seven families who are dedicated to goat, cattle, fodder and vegetable production. They are located on the banks of the Covunco stream (Mapuche for ‘hot waters’) in the central part of Neuquén Province.

 In this group, the predominant type of production is horticulture, in which they carry out agroecological management. They use fertilizers such as home compost and goat, sheep or chicken manure and also to use genetic resources adapted to local climatic conditions. In the same line of work, the fundamental and strategic role played by local genetic resources was analysed, as detailed in this paper.

The experiences generated through the workshops, exchanges, the seed house and the surveys of local available species, allowed the agro-biodiversity existing in the groups and in the area to be valued, achieving diversified production systems, using local genetic resources that are adapted to the climatic conditions, generating self sufficiency within the group. A gene pool of 82 horticultural varieties within 7 farming families represents a remarkable cultural capital.

It is important to highlight the seed selection processes that these seven families have carried out over the years, seeking to meet not only food needs, but also health, culinary and cultural tastes associated with horticultural practice. The revaluation of their seeds also brought strength to the group, leading to the construction of their own seed house for community use in the area.The local seed made it possible to collectively build their own identity and recover species and stories associated with their seeds that seemed to have been lost in the area forever.