Food for families

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• Food for families
• Potatoes in Peru

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Life in the Peruvian Andes
The Andes are very high mountains in Peru. The
people who live there are some of the poorest and
most vulnerable people in Peru
In 2003, temperatures dropped to 35 degrees
centigrade below freezing. 50 children died and
13,000 people suffered from severe cold,
bronchitis and pneumonia
The landscape is bare as very few plants are able
to grow. The people depend on their animals and
a crop of potatoes to give them food and provide
some money to live on.
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Traditional foods from Peru
Potatoes were first grown in Central and Southern
America
They now grow all over the world and are an
important food crop.
In Peru, over 250 different types of potatoes
grow in the high Andes. They are one of the few
crops that can grow in the extreme cold.
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The potatoes provide families with food and a
source of income.
The traditional varieties of potato are able to
grow in the harsh conditions.
Traditional varieties taste good and are not
available in the supermarkets. People will pay
the farmers a good price for them.
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Practical Action in Peru
Over 600 families are growing potatoes. They get
help from farmers who have been trained by
Practical Action.
They learn how to grow the plants and to save
seed for the next growing season.
These families have food security because they
grow traditional varieties that are adapted to
the climate.
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Potatoes into chips
To increase the potatoes market value, the
International Potato Centre (CIP) in Peru helped
farmers to increase their income by turning the
potatoes into chips (what you may know as
crisps)

• A new brand called Jalca Chips was launched

Jalca is the name for the agro-ecological zone
where these coloured native potatoes are grown in
the Andes
The chips were marketed to consumers as natural
healthy
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Advantages of traditional potato chips
Consumers like exotic, tasty and natural products
They absorb much less oil during frying
They have higher nutritional value. Yellow
varieties contain high levels of Vitamin C.
Purple varieties contain high levels of
antioxidants
By using unpeeled potatoes consumers are eating
all the minerals, vitamins and fibre present in
the potato skin
They have interesting shapes and colours
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Potato chips into income
Jalca Chips provide an opportunity for
increased income for small-scale farmers as they
receive a good percentage of each packet which is
sold.
People living in Lima want to eat Jalca Chips
as they taste good, they are healthy and they
support small-scale farmers as well as help to
protect the biodiversity of a wide variety of
traditional, native potatoes

Finding different ways or processing and
marketing the traditional potato encourages
diversity and provides food security and a good
income