Feeding the Poor: Improving Household Production of Guinea Pigs in Peru

The Agricultural Research Station of the Agrarian University of La Molina — located on the outskirts of Lima, Peru — is a tranquil haven in the midst of the clogged highways, pollution, and overcrowding characteristic of this megacity of 7 million inhabitants. Here, chickens scratch in dirt laneways among serene fields of ripening corn, which contrast with the chaotic vista of Lima's rapidly growing pueblos jovenes or 'young towns' — a vast slum that stretches for miles into the parched desert hills and along the Pacific coast to the north and south.

For millions of destitute peasants from the highlands of the Andes, this slum is now home. Many of them were caught in the crossfire during the years of violent conflict between guerrillas, drug traffickers, and the army. As a result, they have abandoned their traditional way of life to become taxi drivers, maids, street vendors, and huachiman or night guards in the city.

The harsh reality of the Andean peoples of Peru, whether migrants to coastal urban centres or rural peasants who practice subsistence agriculture in the highlands, is never far from the minds of Lilia Chauca and her small team of researchers at La Molina. For the past 25 years, these scientists have strived to improve the nutrition and economic security of the poor by focussing on an important staple of the Andean diet: the guinea pig.

Role of guinea pigs

"It's very important for people outside Peru to understand the importance of the guinea pig in Andean society," states Dr Chauca. "The fact that they are kept as pets in [the North] causes a great misconception. The guinea pig is an Andean animal: it has been raised for food here for thousands of years. It's an important source of protein for poor families, who otherwise eat little or no meat, mostly potatoes and rice." In the Andes, she says, guinea pigs are raised by women and children in the kitchen, where they are fed vegetable scraps and fresh greens such as alfalfa.

In the breeding centre at La Molina, 6,000 guinea pigs raise a quiet chorus of "kwee kwee," a sound that inspired the Quechua name for guinea pigs, cuy, used by both the Incas and modern-day Peruvians. "What we're doing here is selecting for two specific traits:" says Dr Chauca's colleague, Rosa Higaonna Oshiro, "animals who produce many offspring, and who reach reproductive age relatively quickly. That way people can produce more cuy in less time."

Promising breeds

By 1986, the team had identified the first promising breeds that combined the two desired qualities. With funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), they started introducing the animals into the Cajamarca region, in the northern sierra of Peru. Child malnutrition is widespread in Cajamarca — one of the poorest departments in the country.

"We quickly learned that it was preferable to introduce only males," says Dr Chauca. "When bred with local females, which are specifically adapted to local ecological conditions, they produce offspring that combine the qualities of our 'improved' strains with the resiliency of local guinea pigs."
During this work, the research team developed simple, low-cost improvements to traditional guinea pig husbandry methods and initiated a community-based effort to transfer this knowledge to local women and children. One major innovation involved raising the guinea pigs in pens — with one male for several females — rather than letting them run free on the kitchen floor. This helps protect the animals from disease and prevents inbreeding.

'Hard currency'

According to Rosa Higaonna, who spent many years doing rural extension work with women's groups and school children in Cajamarca, "the cuy signifies more than food for the family. It can be bartered for kerosene, rice, and other essentials. During the years of hyperinflation, in the '80's and 90's, the cuy was like hard currency. Its barter value remained stable. The cuy kept many families from destitution during those difficult years." Raising guinea pigs gave women control over a key component of the household economy, she adds.

Because external funding has ended, the Peruvian government is now pressuring La Molina to become self-financing and much of Dr Higaonna's time is spent raising guinea pigs for sale in Lima. Meanwhile, Dr Chauca's team has shifted its attention to helping recent migrants to the city. The researchers are developing new techniques for raising guinea pigs in crowded slum dwellings.

Dr Chauca views the guinea pig as a key Peruvian component of 'urban agriculture', an activity which is attracting worldwide interest for its potential role in ensuring food security in the South. In this way, even as Peruvian society evolves, the guinea pig will maintain its central place in local culture and the family diet, she stresses.

Katherine Morrow is a Canadian writer who recently worked in Cajamarca, Peru.

Sidebar:

Role of the Cuy

Resource Person:

Dra. Lilia Chauca, Facultad de Investigación en Animales Menores, Universidad Agraria La Molina, Av. La Universidad s/n La Molina, Lima 12, Peru; Tel: (51-1) 435-1979; Fax: (51-1) 436-1282

---

Links to explore ...

Related IDRC articles and publications:

IDRC Reports: October 1993, Farming in the City: The Rise of Urban Agriculture

AGUILA: Promoting Urban Agriculture in Latin America, by Laurent Fontaine

Fiesta for Six: One Guinea Pig

Cities Feeding People: An Examination of Urban Agriculture in East Africa

Welcome to Cities Feeding People

Additional resources:

Global Facility for Urban Agriculture

Urbaculture: Cities of the Developing World Learn to Feed Themselves

Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs, and Sustainable Cities

Urban Agriculture Notes

IDRC Reports is published weekly on-line by the International Development Research Centre.
Its aim is to keep an international readership informed about the work IDRC supports in developing countries as well as other development issues of interest.

Back to IDRC Homepage

Back to IDRC Reports Page

Updated October 31, 1997. Please send your comments to editor of Reports.