A Technological Innovation Experience for Artisan Production of Dehydrated Potato: Tunta

Since remote times the Andean producers, most of them smallholders, have the important mission to foster food security. Potato constitutes a key example of it with more than four thousand varieties and a bunch of processed products generally dehydrated. They are an important source of food and income for peasant families. The "tunta" and "chuno" are two processed potato products that are mainly produce above four thousand meters in the Peruvian Altiplano in Puno. In this place, it is developed a commercial production focused to the Peruvian and Bolivian markets. However, there are limiting factors, among them, technological issues, that affect the quality of the final product which restricts their commercial growth. In this sense, the International Potato Center under the Papa Andina Initiative and the Innovation and Competitiveness of the Peruvian Potato project (INCOPA) have promoted technological innovation through platform since 2005 with the objective to improve the commercial quality of "tunta" and consequently the economic benefit of producers. The technological innovation took place between 2005 and 2009 using participatory methods. A brief summary of the results are: the formulation of the "Good Practices for Processing Tunta (GPPT)" document, diffusion of the GPPT and the production and commercial evolution of the "tunta", with an income increase of 47% for the target's group producers.