According to the jury, its approach “tries to develop competitiveness in the potato chain, focusing especially on small producers, and takes advantage of the resources and the support of institutions to enable technological, production and commercial innovations that elevate the concept of the potato, both in its dissemination and consumption.”
The Creativity Business Award is the most important in the Peruvian business world, where companies and their most innovative initiatives of the year are publicly recognized. It is organized by the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC), the local newspaper El Comercio, the communications group RPP and ATV. This year the jury put above other values the effort of the companies, both private and public, to develop products and services that improve the quality of life of economically deprived Peruvians.
INCOPA, which is part of the Andean Potato Regional Initiative, Papa Andina (Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru) that CIP coordinates, is implemented with funds from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (COSUDE). It started its activities in 2001. It develops and implements participatory approaches to generate commercial, technological and institutional innovations that help to improve the competitiveness of the small potato producers of the Peruvian Andes. The approach promotes partnerships among the different actors of the potato market chain both nationally and regionally. It works with a broad network of public and private partners (around 30) promoting collaboration to answer more efficiently the needs of potato-producing families. The initiative is demonstrating that research and development have to operate hand in hand to have an effective impact at the level of small potato producers.
The most apparent results of the work are: commercial innovations or new products (selected fresh native potatoes, colored potato chips, yellow potato puree, selelcted white chuño or tunta; institutional innovations or new institutions and standards (public-private partnerships, National Day of the Potato, a law governing the wholesale trade of potato, a Technical Standard for tunta); technological innovations or new technologies (post harvest management, production of quality seed, integrated cultural management).
This recognition gains greater importance because 2008 is the International Year of the Potato, where various activities involving public and private groups have promoted the image of the potato. One such activity was the public awareness campaign “Papea Perú” of the Peru Ministry of Agriculture, which was also recognized with an award in the category Food and Nutritional Products.
For more information, contact
Miguel Ordinola
General Coordinator of the INCOPA Project
Tel. 3496017. ext. 3014
cip-incopa@cgiar.org