Understanding local knowledge production to address global environmental change: leveraging the case of Bolivian Aymara expert farmers

Abstract The failure of Western science-based solutions to address global environmental change has given credence to knowledge co-production that engages multiple knowledge systems, including local knowledge. Co-production—which is widely favored by Indigenous scholars—requires understanding how Indigenous populations produce their knowledge and who the knowledge producers are. To answer the how and who , we demonstrate how local knowledge is an open and dynamic way of knowing that synthesizes information from multiple sources, including Indigenous knowledge and, at times, positivist science. To do this, we analyze Aymara farmers’ process of knowledge production, which aims to support a regime shift in the science-based agronomic technical assistance that failed to effectively address local farming challenges on its own. We surveyed and interviewed expert farmers (i.e., yapuchiri ) in 46 Bolivian Aymara communities to understand how they produce knowledge (i.e., the yapuchiri process). Aymara farmers developed a rigorous system for producing “expert farmers” ( yapuchiri) , which is geographically, culturally, and socially situated. Yapuchiri establish their expertise through experimentation, rigor, replication, and dissemination, activities that are also part of the scientific process. Our study also reveals that inequality in yapuchiri knowledge production results from structural factors such as land tenure, status in the community, gender norms, and marital status. By examining how local knowledge is produced and who produces it, we can better understand power relations and inequalities in knowledge systems as well as drivers of innovation and collaboration, all of which are fundamental for co-producing knowledge to address global environmental change.