Promote • Educate
20 September/October 2019
Feature
Above: Maca roots are sun-dried for three months at altitude to create the medicinal
components. It’s never eaten fresh.Above: 6FKRROVWXGHQWVLQWKHYLOODJHRI6DQ-RVHGH4XHUREHQHÀWIURPDSDUWQHUVKLSZLWK
Seleno Health. The message on the wall can be translated as ‘Quality education with equal
opportunities. Committed parents educate successful children’.brain energy is maca. She [‘la maca’] offers
strength and resilience to our brain and
keeps us strong under stress. She grows
at altitudes and extremes where nothing
else can survive and thrives under these
stressors. This was what I saw Corin needed
to help him with his fatigue.”The maca market
Currently maca sales are worth $60
million per year in exports out of Peru.
Corin estimates most poverty-stricken
maca growers are lucky to get 1–2% of the
retail value of their crop. “It’s an industry
dominated by big corporations, corruption,
exploitation and fuelled by corporate
greed.”
For three to six months annually, Corin
and Sally work alongside the Aquinos
and their extended family, planting and
harvesting maca. Corin describes it as
one big family farm-to-table operation.
“Florencio can earn over 10 times more
than he would have got before selling to a
broker.”Maca culture and cultivation
The traditional farming methods used for
the cultivation of their sacred maca crops
dates back over 2000 years. At the heart of
their practice are their spiritual beliefs.
“The Junin people are very connected
to nature and Mother Earth. For them
respecting the way of nature delivers
prosperity, health and happiness. At the
beginning of the July harvest the local
shaman first blesses the soil and an offering
of either valued food, crops or possessions
is made to Pachamama (Mother Earth)
before the maca is lifted from the soil,”
Corin says.
Having no farm machinery, the
Aquinos plough their fields using bulls or
donkeys. Maca seeds are then hand sown
and, come harvest time, traditional hand
tools similar to grubbers are used to uproot
the plant from the soil. The fact this work
is undertaken 4200 metres above sea level