Food Security and Indigenous People: the Asheninka experience in the Upper Envira River with the Food Acquisition Program (FAP)

Abstract

This article presents the main issues that guided a case study of the Asheninkas experience with the Food Acquisition Program (FAP). This ethnic group speaks the Arauak language and live the Kampa Indigenous Land isolated from the Envira River, Acre, in southwestern Brazilian Amazon. They take part in the Program since 2012 as the State’s exclusive suppliers of Peruvian beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), whose itinerant cultivation in the woods follows a traditional system. Our approach is a reflection on the interaction between the Food Acquisition Program (FAP) and the Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) of this population, based on the concept established in the Organic Law on Food and Nutrition Security, and on the Asheninkas perceptions. For them, FNS is associated with traditional food crops considered strong, like bananas, corn, beans, and sacred foods such as cassava, with the regular consumption of traditional foods with ingredients from hunting, fishing, and gathering, with maintenance of their traditional knowledge, and with food loan contracts with relatives based on reciprocal relations. These relationships are essential for household access to the FAP, which, when locally appropriate, potentiates traditional economic activities with sustainable use of the territory, preserving traditional habits and overcoming geographic isolation. With the income from the FAP, the Asheninkas have acquired the means of agricultural production, fishing and hunting supplies. These acquisitions of processed products coexist with their traditional material culture without replacing it, while contributing greatly to ensure FNS.