The Arhuacos participate in the development of new common bean varieties for climate change

Codazzi, Cesar. May 11, 2023. Since the project Frijol Kolfaci started approximately three years ago, AGROSAVIA has been working through field adaptation tests with different common bean accessions developed by CIAT to obtain a new variety tolerant to the water deficit and high-temperature conditions of the Caribbean region.

Although these actions are routine processes in research centers, the project's novelty lies in the fact that the community selects the materials they like according to the grain's size, brightness, and color, and it is planted under the conditions of the producer's farm. Thus, a real adaptation and acceptance by ethnic communities is favored.

The process described has also facilitated the integration of ethnic groups with peasant communities in the region since, in 2022, the Arhuaca Umuriwa community, which participates in the agroecological seedbed of Fondo Acción, accompanied the evaluation and technical management of established elite common bean trials on the farm La Prosperidad owned by an Asoproagrogar associate.

The Umuriwa community harvested this trial, and on the farm El Corralito, representatives of the Birwa, Ikarwa, and Umuriwa communities met to select the ten most preferred common bean genotypes according to grain characteristics (color, size, brightness, or shape) that were then established in a community plot.

The trial has been developed applying traditional knowledge such as payments, spiritual harmonization, and the use of the lunar calendar to carry out different tasks and the use of biopreparations from fermented plant extracts, biols, and compost, using as controls, the Caupí and Tepari common beans.

The traditional knowledge fabric and technological innovation have been facilitated thanks to the training diversification of AGROSAVIA's technical personnel at the Motilonia Research Center by integrating professionals from the social sciences, such as the social worker and lecturer in territorial studies of Universidad de Caldas, Juan Sebastián Valencia, who supports the validation of the hybrid methodology for the scientific-technological linkage of the ancestral peoples of Colombia. This important document was launched last month during the III Meeting of Possible Territories at Universidad de La Plata, Argentina.

The Senior Ph.D. Researcher Adriana Tofiño states, "The work done by the Arhuaca community is extremely important as they can by themselves adequately appropriate the variety and comply with the guidelines of the law of origin regarding the spiritual harmonization to obtain Mother Earth's recognition."

In the evaluation carried out last Friday, at least five of the established genotypes showed better productive conditions, evidenced by the number of pods and plant vigor, compared to the two selected controls.

The M.Sc. Researcher Carina Cordero highlights, "It has been an interesting work because we have been able to articulate it with the work of different communities, and through participatory research, we have been able to select promising genotypes, establish them in the field and look at their behavior, adaptation or response to different biotic (presence of soil pathogens that produce root rot) and abiotic pressures (intermittent drought and night temperatures above 18 degrees). We hope that with the joint work with the communities, we can select the best genotypes to be able to take them to a subsequent evaluation test in the field and be able to obtain the genetic material from these that will become a new common bean variety in the dry Caribbean, with tolerance to high temperatures and prolonged periods of drought."