| Abstrakt: |
An interdisciplinary approach comes into view between the lines of this team investigation synthesis which deals with andean fallow dynamics. It questions agronomic and social sciences. An agronomist and an anthropologist, facing initial semantic difficulty to define fallow, gather their points of view concerning the same peasant community of Bolivian high plateau. This community is still functioning as the archetype of andean communities. They challenge to explain why land has been fallowing during ten years since such a long time, and how collective management is changing. Firstly each research worker tries to answer within his proper scientific sphere. The agronomist checks more deeply some of the fallow functions: soil fertility restoration jquimical, biological and physical) depending on fallow duration, the Impact of long fallow on parasitism (Globodera pallida, Premnotrypes latithorax) and fueiwood production. The best fallow duration Is not ten years for every fallow functions. The combination of these functions may have changed in the past. The anthropologist studies history of land access and actual social representations. Interdisciplinary dialog occur between them, but reality looks to be more complex and quiet unpredictable as expecting specific fallow dynamics repeatly fail. Fallow duration looks not to change because this time is fix, cyclical; it represents the history and the memory of the community. What actually changes is the type of land access, from collective to private, and the deslgual access to these types of land. It implies a new focus to on-farm management. We conclude that edafological constraints are not the only deterministic reason for long fallow duration. We teased out the different reasons, which are multiple, jerarquized and linked within a dynamic process, as threads are. it is the main goal of an interdisciplinary research. |
