Alpaca breeding in Peru: From individual initiatives towards a national breeding programme?

Abstract

Alpacas play an important role in Andean agriculture in Peru as a source of income for about 82,000 families. Although there are various national laws regulating alpaca keeping and breeding, and there are also government plans to introduce a national breeding programme, alpaca breeding takes place in individual, isolated initiatives. This study aims to show how these individual initiatives work, what challenges they face, but also what plans there are for the future and to derive policy and research recommendations. A total of 8 persons, who are responsible for currently running breeding programmes, were interviewed using a questionnaire. Breeding programmes for white Huacaya alpacas are implemented by private companies, but also farmers and a farmers' cooperative. Improving fibre quality by reducing the mean fibre diameter is the most important breeding objective, often in combination with increasing fibre quantity. Besides subjective selection criteria, objective criteria (laboratory analyses of the fibre) are also used. Reproduction technologies such as artificial insemination or embryo transfer do not play a role, as they are too costly and have low success rates. The potential use of genomic information is considered positive. Lack of well-trained personnel, missing interest of cooperative members, high laboratory costs for fibre analysis, volatile fibre prices and feed shortages were mentioned as mayor challenges. All participants of the study plan to further consolidate and expand their breeding programmes in the future. In principle, the introduction of a national breeding programme was assessed positively, but opinions differed strongly on the concrete implementation. Therefore, an open dialogue with the different stakeholders is needed to get a common breeding programme on track.