Cultivating Heritage Along the Native Potato Route: Agritourism Experiences from the Field in Puqueldón, Chile
Challenges
Puqueldón, within the Chiloé Archipelago, sits at the heart of a globally recognized agricultural heritage landscape, where native potatoes, Chiloé garlic, and other traditional crops embody both biodiversity and cultural identity. Despite the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) designation of Chiloé as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) in 2011, the region faces mounting pressures from modernization and industrial agriculture, including standardization of crop varieties and the gradual displacement of ancestral practices.
Despite these challenges, women emerge as pivotal guardians of heritage and catalysts of economic resilience. With a substantial share of tourism enterprises in Chiloé led by women, they safeguard agrobiodiversity and steward practices handed down through generations.
The challenge is therefore twofold: maintain living heritage through everyday practice, and translate it into dignified, diversified economic opportunities.
Results
The Puqueldón agritourism route was conceived to weave heritage conservation, women’s leadership, and market-facing creativity into a coherent destination experience. At its core is the Native Potato Route, a guided journey that invites visitors into the fields, kitchens, and communal spaces where ancestral practices remain alive. The route builds on the Minga, an enduring tradition of collective work, to showcase how collaboration underpins both agricultural resilience and communal identity.
Women farmers, particularly the ten members of the Chilcoop Cooperative, diversified beyond primary production to curate agritourism offerings that connect cultivation cycles with hospitality and culinary storytelling. The Native Potato Route became their flagship product, an adaptable, seasonally responsive experience that elevates native potato varieties through tasting menus, hands-on demonstrations, and narratives about land and climate. In parallel, they introduced value-added products, such as potato chocolates, chips, and other artisanal lines, that translate heritage into marketable goods with identity-rich packaging and provenance storytelling. The Chilcoop Cooperative also regularly participates in international fairs to amplify visibility, validate product quality, and build networks that extend beyond the archipelago.
Inspiring examples are Yolanda Millapichun who is the keeper of 112 varieties of native potatoes, with the largest variety garden in the archipelago and Teresa Baeza, who transformed traditional goldsmithing into a unique practice using native potatoes as raw material, turning an ancestral crop into art to dress and symbolic heritage.
One of the standout attractions is the Minga Tiradura de Casa, an iconic event drawing more than 5,000 visitors every February, concentrated attention on communal traditions, stimulating hospitality revenue, local retail, and services linked to visitor flows.
With approximately 67% of tourism enterprises in Chiloé led by women, they clearly play a vital role in preserving native potato varieties and the cultural knowledge associated with them.
Lessons Learned
The Puqueldón experience underscores that agritourism grounded in living heritage thrives when biodiversity stewardship, women’s leadership, and culinary creativity are integrated within tourism product development.
A key lesson is the importance of experiential authenticity and co-creation. By structuring activities around real agricultural cycles, seed preservation practices, and culinary traditions, the initiative ensured that tourism did not abstract heritage but instead reinforced it.
Value-added products expanded sales beyond on-site experiences, expressions of heritage that carry Puqueldón’s story. This diversification reduces dependency on seasonal visitation while strengthening the overall value chain, linking agriculture, tourism, and creative industries.
Additionally, women’s leadership became a cornerstone of inclusive growth; hosts gained recognition and bargaining power, diversified household income, and strengthened local community well-being.
In Puqueldón, the approach demonstrates that living heritage, when stewarded by women and grounded in everyday practice, can power dignified livelihoods and resilient tourism without compromising authenticity.
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