Seeds without harvest: Management of agricultural knowledge and landscape transformation in the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. 1907-1990.

Abstract

During the twentieth century, Colombian State choose the Sabana de Bogotá as one of the spaces to design and implement the scientific institutions that brought about the modernization of high-Andean agriculture. The strategies used to manage the agricultural knowledge imported and produced locally by these institutions followed an aim to increase food production and improve the quality of life of Colombian population. However, these research and extension programs ended up impacting local agro-food systems and ushered in the rise of an ornamental flower agribusiness. This article studies the contradictions between the strategies used by the Colombian State to manage agricultural knowledge and the socio-ecological impacts of these programs on local landscapes. For which, it presents a tour through the history of agricultural scientific institutions in the Sabana de Bogota and addresses their influence in the transformations of the local landscape between 1926 and 1990.