T’ikapapa: Linking Urban Consumers and Small Andean Producers with Potato Biodiversity

Peruvian highlands have a vast potato biodiversity, which is not being exploited adequately and on a sustainable basis. Most varieties of native potatoes are unknown, and although it is not possible to prove their erosion, it is possible to confirm their production stagnation and their latent risk to disappear. The INCOPA Project of the International Potato Center (CIP) is working in this context. Its work is oriented to develop actions to identify and exploit new market opportunities, taking advantage of native potatoes biodiversity and linking producers with other potato market chain actors in a better way. In particular, it seeks to develop and implement participatory mechanisms and shareholder platforms to generate commercial, technological and institutional innovations among different potato chain actors and under a severe demand approach. The idea is to exploit the comparative advantages of Peruvian potato (given by geographical location) and add factors to develop competitive advantages (differentiation and added value of the product). The Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) is the tool being used to achieve this goal oriented to involve all chain actors to generate innovations to improve potato competitiveness. As a result of this work, the T’ikapapa product (meaning Potato Flower in Quechua) has been developed. T’ikapapa is the first commercial brand supporting native potatoes sale under strict quality standards. In this sense, this document summarizes the concepts on the product development presented in the 2005 Business Creativity Award, where it won the first place in the Food Category (this award is promoted by the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences - UPC, El Comercio newspaper, radio station RPP and ATV television network). The jury considered that: “T’ikapapa allows linking urban consumers and Andean producers with potato biodiversity to revalue the culinary heritage, exploiting and preserving the rich versatility of Peruvian potato and generating sustainable businesses for small scale highland producers and committed companies”1. The INCOPA Project is coordinated by the International Potato Center (CIP), funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented jointly with public and private partners in Lima, Huanuco, Puno, Apurimac and Huancavelica.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Ordinola, M., Bernet, T., Manrique, K.
Format:	Book biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	International Potato Center 2007-08
Subjects:	potatoes, biodiversity,
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/117764
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