We currently operate demonstration areas in Viacha and Pucarani in the Northern Altiplano and Sica Sica in the Central Altiplano. In each area we are working with the farmers in 30 to 50 communities for a period of three years, helping them reclaim eroded farmland and increase productivity and income. We use innovative extension methods such as helping them assess markets and make business plans, using competitions among communities to mobilize participation and reward changes in farming practice, using successful farmers as well as agronomists as extension agents, and employing female as well as male staff in order to increase the participation of women in projects. The projects help farmers reclaim land and increase income and sustain the increases. They also serve as sites for demonstrating the utility of these innovative methods so that they can employ them in the projects of NGOs, producers' associations, farmers from other areas, and donors.
