Compatibility of Ancestral and Innovative Agricultural Practices in the Kankuamo People of Colombia

Abstract The agricultural practices of the ancestral Latin American peoples hardly lead to optimal productivity integrated with adequate management of resources. This work evaluates the compatibility between the ancestral practices of the Kankuamo community in the vulnerable ecosystem Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, and innovative practices by the [AGROSAVIA] Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation, in biofortified beans of high nutritional value in the face of malnutrition and scarcity of the community’s own food. Methodologically, surveys were carried out that identify sustainability tracers and microbiological analysis of soils and the association among the variables evaluated. The results identify the incidence of education, health, self-care, gender and food supply in this vulnerability, verify the exclusion of agrochemicals in production, and show the need for a strategy of technological adoption with a differential approach.