Help eliminate poverty among 1,500 wool producers in Bolivia

Bolivia's Altiplano families who raise llama are still among the poorest in the world, earning just $300 to $600 a year.  SID would like to help 1,500 llama-herding families achieve higher incomes.  Your support will help us develop a project to train 1,500 llama-herding families to:

Fundación Puma and the Global Development Alliance are interested in funding the 2-year, $200,000 pilot project and 4-year $1,200,000 program extension, but we need an additional $40,000 to develop this project for 2007.

SID has done extensive work in Bolivia helping poor families on the Altiplano increase income from milk, cheese, yogurt, and beef.  With a combined population of 1.65 million (nearly 30% of Bolivia's urban population and 20% of Bolivia's total population) the Altiplano cities of La Paz and El Alto provide good markets for Altiplano milk and meat.  However, llama and alpaca wool are the comparative advantages for the majority of Altiplano families.

Llama and alpaca are indigenous to the Altiplano.  The use of their wool, meat, and hides is the major reason humans settled here.  As you travel south on the Altiplano, the environment gets higher and drier, and llama and alpaca are about the only animals that can thrive in this semi-arid, high-altitude environment.  Forty-six percent of Bolivia's rural population, nearly 1.5 million people, live on the Altiplano, and over 1 million herders raise llama and alpaca.

Bolivia has about 2.5 million llama and 500,000 alpaca.  Alpaca have uniformly fine wool, which commands a much higher price than llama wool.  However, a major processor (Altifibers in La Paz/El Alto) has developed machines which comb the course hairs out of llama wool, making it just as fine as alpaca wool.  With this new technology, the price of llama wool is gradually rising to equal that of alpaca wool.  Llama meat has no cholesterol and is cheaper than beef.  Most of the hamburgers and hot dogs sold on the streets of La Paz and El Alto are made from llama meat, and finer cuts are served at dinner parties in affluent homes.  Llama jerky is also popular and is used in a number of dishes.

Eighty-five percent of market demand is for white wool, but 74% of Bolivia's animals are various shades of brown.  Herders have been slow to change over to animals with white wool.  Also, many herders still shear their animals with the sharpened lids of cans rather than shears, and they have poor sorting and initial processing practices.  Productivity is low because pastures are degraded and many of the animals have parasites.  Because of these poor practices, llama herders lose at least 50% of the value of their wool.  SID's project will help them regain this value and increase income by at least 50%.

With your support, we will be able to devote time to carefully selecting the most disadvantaged communities.  We will design the project so that llama-herding families can make a sustainable transition to better farming and business practices.  We appreciate any size donation to help develop this project.

How do Poor Farmers Increase Their Incomes in Bolivia?

View the Bolivian PowerPoint
 

To contribute, please click the link below:

Please contact us at sid@sidworld.org or (703) 875-0500 for more detailed information.