ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of a case in transition by a population of Andean Indian farmers from less than subsistence production, incapable of even feeding themselves, to commercial agricultural producers on a modest scale. It describes briefly the characteristics of agricultural production in the Andean area, by which the authors mean principally the mountain areas of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, plus the fertile Pacific coastal plain west of the Andes. There are at least two geographically specific forms of such enterprise in the Andean region: plantations and ranches. A variety of "medium farmers" occupies the next-lower position of the continuum of production. Less productive than the medium farmers are a vast multitude of several millions of peasant farmers. Least productive of the Andean agricultural units are the traditional manors.
