Cultural and ethnobotanical legacy of native potatoes in Colombia

Study area

One of the communities that still protect and cultivate native potatoes is located in the municipality of Chiscas, in the department of Boyacá, Colombia. The town has an area of 662,732 km2 and is located in the eastern mountain range to the northeast of the department of Boyacá at 6°33′11″ N, 72°29′58″ W (Fig. 1). Its name is derived from the ancient settlers known as the Laches and Chiscas who described this territory as a muddy place [27]. The municipality is divided into nine sectors and has an estimated population of 3.587 inhabitants [28]. Average annual rainfall ranges between 1200 and 1500 mm, with rainy periods interspersed with a dry period and another slightly rainy one. Most of the villagers, including the youngsters, speak Spanish [27]. The 2018 multidimensional poverty index indicated that about 60% of the municipality’s population was at some level of poverty [28].

Fig. 1figure 1

Study area, Municipality of Chiscas, Boyacá, Colombia

Field survey and data collection

To develop the present study, it was necessary to design the questionnaire and collect information. The data obtained in the interviews served to carry out a sentiment analysis, to quantitatively determine the transmission of knowledge and the importance of native potatoes. In this last aspect, it is important to point out that widely known ethnobotanical indices were estimated, such as relative importance, use value, ethnobotanical importance and cultural importance. Additionally, the relationship by type of use was made for each of the reported genotypes.

The native potato genotypes referenced here belong to the Andigena group, taxonomically classified as Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena group. Their detailed botanical description can be found in the book entitled: “Colors and flavors of my land: native potatoes grown in Boyacá” [21].

Questionnaire design

This study was based on semi-structured interviews (exploratory interview that follows a previously devised guide or protocol and focuses on a central topic to provide a general structure and also allows for additional topics to be addressed as the conversation unfolds) [29]. The questionnaire used was empirically validated through a pilot test with 55 inhabitants of the El Sote sector in the municipality of Motavita, Boyacá. In this area, potato cultivation is historical and recognized. The first version of the questionnaire was given to the participants to assess the comprehension, reliability and reproducibility of the questions. Considering the practical work in the field, the adjustments required, fundamentally related to a non-understanding of some terms, were made.

Collecting information

The community of the municipality under study is made up of a rural area and an urban nucleus. Since the study sought to understand the historical dynamics of use and transmission of knowledge related to native potatoes, tours, visits and interviews were carried out in both sectors.

Fieldwork included semi-structured interviews, key informant conversations, participant observation, and dialogues (process of interaction which can be applied to different conditions and circumstances) [30]. In total, 130 informants were selected using the snowball method. At first, before any interview, we introduced ourselves to the people in charge of the town; after their agreement, the participants were asked if they could be interviewed in the context of our study. They were free to participate or not; that is, their inclusion was voluntary.

During the field research, each informant listed the native potatoes he/she remembered, including current and past information. The interviews consisted of two parts, the first part recorded data on the basic situation of the informants (age, education, occupation), and the other part included questions related to the cultivation, consumption and commercialization of native potatoes including among others, local name, availability of seeds, type of use, part used, frequency of consumption, gastronomic properties and other uses. The designed form was applied with the help of the tool for cell phones and computers, KoBoCollect v.1.25.1 [31].

Quantitative ethnobotany

The ethnobotanical importance of native potato species in the studied community was assessed by quantifying the historical ethnobotanical indices listed below.

Uses and importance of native potato genotypes

To understand and contrast the relationship between types of uses for each native potato genotype mentioned by the participants, the ethnobotanyR package proposed by Whitney [32] for the R software was used. The string diagram was used to create the corresponding graph, and the cultural value index was estimated for the 15 most mentioned genotypes (ethnobotanyR). The determination of the index is based on the formula and the factors proposed by Reyes-García [33].

Relative importance

This index reflects the relative frequency of citation and the relative number of categories of use. The value obtained allows to present the most versatile native potato genotypes. The relative importance index varies theoretically from 0, when no use of the plant is mentioned, to 1, when it is mentioned most frequently as useful in the maximum number of use categories. It was estimated using the formula proposed by Tardío and Pardo-De Santayana [34].

Use value

This index takes into account the uses mentioned by the participants for each of the native potatoes. For this index, values between 0 and 1 can be obtained, with 1 being the highest value, associated with high utility. This was estimated using the formula proposed by Prance et al. [35].

Ethnobotany importance

The ethnobotanical importance value index of native potatoes was estimated based on the formula proposed by Lajones-Bone and Lema-Tapia [36], with some modifications. In other words, although the minimum (0) and maximum (100) values were maintained, the cultural elements, each of their categories and weight within the formula, were adjusted taking into account uses and agroeconomic characteristics within the local context under study.

Therefore, for the estimation of this index, four quantitative qualifiers were used, as follows. (1) CALPARE: associated with the part of the plant used, that is, stems, leaves, flowers or tubers. (2) CALSURE: refers to the uses those potatoes are given, including commercial, domestic, medicinal, ritual or magical, or others. (3) CALEXC: related to the size of the crop expressed in hectares and that could be > 10, 8–10, 6–7.9, 4–5.9, 2–3.9, 0.1–1.9. (4) CALTIC: referring to the time, in years, that the potato genotypes have been cultivated, the values could be included within the following ranges: 9–10, 7–8, 5–6, 3–4, 1–2.

Cultural transmission

The dynamics, most frequently used for the transmission of this knowledge, was evaluated for each age group (Table 1). For this, the percentage of cultural transmission will be reduced based on the answers issued by the participants regarding who taught them what they know about these tubers. To do this, the percentage of cultural transmission was deduced based on the answers given by the participants regarding who taught them what they knew about these tubers. Five optional responses were given: grandparents, parents, siblings, uncles or acquaintances, which were the most cited during the validation of the questionnaire. For the estimation of the percentages and the graphical representation of the results, R [37], was used.

Table 1 Age range of the intervieweesSentiment analysis

In artificial intelligence, the use of methodological tools such as the training of specialized data mining algorithms allows identifying the sentiments expressed by people in different scenarios (polarity). For this reason, in this study, a sentiment analysis was carried out, which allows the perceptions of the participants to be categorized as positive, negative or neutral. The analysis was carried out by the company Quaxam Datalab, based on the text information obtained from the interviews.

For this purpose, and based on natural language processing (NLP), the software products QUnderstand and QFeel were used for the extraction of sentiments and emotions. The process comprised three stages: In the first stage, the text was sequentially adapted, in stage 2, the information was processed and the unstructured data were extracted, and in stage 3, a model was built to summarize the results obtained.

The explorations were carried out from two approaches, the first (a) identified and individualized the sentiments generated in the interviewees when approaching different topics and the second (b), the emotions generated in the interviewees were recognized and categorized with respect to the totality of the questions raised during the interview. The results of the analysis take values represented on a polarity scale ranging from − 1 (totally negative sentiment) to 1 (totally positive sentiment). Thus, values between 0.2 and − 0.2 on the scale allow us to infer a neutral sentiment.

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