Factors of knowledge loss of the use of local climate indicators in communities of the North and Central Highland

Jere L. Gilles; Edwin E. Yucra Sea; Magali García Cárdenas; Rogelio Quispe; Gladys Yana; Héctor Fernandez

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a strong interest in the recovery of the local knowledge of farmers in the Andes, who in many areas maintain and use knowledge to forecast the climate in the short and medium term in order to plan and manage the Risks that influence their production. The studies focus on the use, evaluation and assessment of indicators, but the disuse and loss of them could be undermining the cognitive richness of the farmer's relationship with his environment and yet it has not been evaluated. It is reported that, while many organizations promote processes to recover these practices, in communities there is a tendency to stop using and losing this knowledge. Therefore, this study tries to examine which are the most influential factors for the lossing knowledge about the use of local indicators to predict the climate, in order to contribute with knowledge to reduce this loss. It has been determined that among the most important factors for the disuse of the indicators are the socioeconomic and not the climate, which is in a place of relative minor importance. This points to the importance of planning the maintenance of this knowledge through formal sources of transfer, since the informal ones have diminished in their capacity to maintain the knowledge.