News - Arequipa Nexus Institute - Purdue University/UNSA

News

Learning about ‘Fitotoldos’ in the Colca Valley

February 7, 2025

‘Fitotoldos’ are greenhouse-like structures built with local materials. In high Andean areas of the Colca Valley, these structures facilitate the growing of vegetables, some types of fruits and herbs, which would difficult to cultivate in open fields due to low temperatures, hail and snow. Thus, their installation and adequate maintenance as well as knowledge/management of horticultural crops offers an opportunity to improve food and nutritional security of rural families. However, despite the increasing implementation of fitotoldos in the Colca Valley since 2019, there is virtually no information about their performance.

To fill this gap, last October Nexus members of the ‘Organic Farming Systems’ Project: Drs. Nelly Ramírez and Gary Burniske, and students Andrea Quispe and Martha Gutiérrez, carried out a diagnosis of fitotoldos functioning in the districts of Sibayo, Yanque and Madrigal. Interviews conducted with owners of 42 fitotoldos included questions related to production systems, organic production practices, infrastructure operation, and knowledge/challenges of fitotoldos management. Moreover, 28 interviews were held with people that do not own fitotoldos to get their impressions on obstacles preventing their adoption.

Fitotoldos in the study districts are in urban areas, within educational centers, in peri-urban areas, and in rural areas. Their state of preservation/management ranges from well-maintained to abandoned. Most of them were designed by the government program ‘Rural Agrarian Productive Development Program’ (AgroRural) which supported beneficiary farmers with roof, windows and doors, while the beneficiaries built the walls and installed the irrigation system. Most interviewees use fitotoldos to produce organic vegetables for their own consumption facing several challenges in their operation (e.g., lack of technical advice/training in its management, lack of water, too high temperatures, pest management, lack of labor for fitotoldo management, etc.). Thus, training on fitotoldos vegetable production and management is needed.