Autochthonous crops as e.g. Andean grains, roots and tubers, are important elements in rural and urban households in Bolivia. The preservation of local food traditions depends above all on the improvement of production opportunities. Bolivian farmers of the Altiplano and inter-Andean valley communities still cultivate a wide range of diverse crop resources, but faced with reduced demands this agro-biodiversity is in danger of becoming significantly reduced. The overall aim of this PhD thesis was to contribute to the conservation and use of cañahua and ahipa by records of ethno-ecological and agronomic knowledge in Bolivia.

Experiments and field studies were conducted in both Bolivia and Denmark. The experiment on responses of seed germination and emergence to temperature and sowing depth revealed that cañahua landraces have better germination than cultivars. According to its low base temperature (Tb) it could be demonstrated that cañahua is a crop adapted to low temperature. At sowing depths between 5 and 35 mm cañahua seeds germinate within a temperature range between 5 and 15 ºC. No differences were found in seed germination for the two growth habit type plants, i.e. Lasta (prostrate) and Saihua (erect). However, at 5 ºC cultivars and landraces with larger seed size germinated better than cultivars with smaller seeds. Cañahua seed shattering experiments involving landraces and cultivars were set up under both controlled and field conditions in Denmark and Bolivia; i.e. an aspect not previously studied in this member of the Chenopodiaceae, but an aspect of considerable agronomic importance for many rural farmers in the Bolivian Altiplano. No significant differences were found in seed losses between the two growth habit types. However, the cañahua landrace Umacutama showed less seed shattering in comparison to cultivars regardless of whether tested under controlled or field conditions.

In Bolivia the results of the experiments demonstrated effects of location on seed shattering in cañahua landraces and cultivars. A survey to compare the past and present status of the ahipa, a.k.a. the Andean yam bean, formed part of the field studies. A few local Bolivian institutions have conducted investigations of the crop in rural communities. Thus, the surveying and the information collected from the ahipa producing communities and the comparison with the only previous study – carried out two decades ago – showed that many producers are abandoning the cultivation of the ahipa and have replaced it by other marketable crops, i.e. mainly cash crop. If the farmers who still cultivate ‒ and thereby conserve the ahipa ‒ are to be encouraged in their efforts, they should receive a support as they are considered the ‘custodian ahipa farmers’. Recently native Andean crops were included in school breakfast programmes, however, for small farmer association the participation is not easy and they have formed alliances with companies as they are confronted with several constraints. Albeit ahipa is disappearing from urban markets due to lack of economic incentive to the ahipa growers. A framework is proposed for the enhancing of local capacity building among small farmers, mainly focussed on women and farmer associations.