Bolivia's Potato Lab Hands Seed Breeding Back to 23 Village Communities

Fundación PROINPA, a Cochabamba-based foundation working on Andean crops, is part of the Raíces Agroecológicas consortium with INIAF and CIPCA. In early 2026 it ran field workshops on participatory and evolutionary plant breeding in 23 rural communities of La Paz and Beni, reaching nearly 300 producers, with 61% of the La Paz participants being women. Farmers in La Paz planted 36 potato varieties, selecting clones and evolving populations, while Beni communities worked on cassava and maize. The wider project targets at least 1,200 direct beneficiaries in Bolivia, and PROINPA is also leading a quinoa project on native and wild plant diversity for 2024-2027.