PRODERM was a rural development Project, financed by Dutch Development Aid, the European Commission and the Peruvian government. It operated in the Department of Cusco (see: its background - pdf).

The design of Pachamama Raymi started in 1986 when Humberto van der Zel, a Dutch rural development expert, was looking for ways to improve field irrigation techniques in a number of irrigations systems built or improved by PRODERM, in the mountains of Cusco, Peru. Humberto van der Zel entrusted the field irrigation program to Willem van Immerzeel.

Willem understood his assignment as follows: within the time left for PRODERM, over 4,500 families (about 30% of the target population) would have to adopt more efficient irrigation techniques (see the details of the history - pdf), such as the techniques found in Arequipa (See slide show about Irrigation Technology of Arequipa and peer learning). PRODERM didn’t have the capacity to produce this kind of results within such a short time. Clearly, a tool, a procedure, was missing to increase the capacity of the project to train farmers on this scale. The extreme requirement inspired the first proposal (pdf). Extreme requirements were also the reason to improve and further develop the new training system over the following years and decades.

Willem didn’t think he should only define goals in terms of numbers of families, he also thought they should be formulated in terms of “contents”, of innovations to be introduced. Willem used two approaches: a clear definition of the general issues, but also, a definition of knowledge and know-how, of experience, people needed to possess, the tacit knowledge they needed to irrigate with great efficiency. He used computer simulation techniques to define the general issues. The use of WOFOST proved to be very helpful at this stage. He defined “tacit knowledge” in very efficient irrigation, by identifying the people that possessed such knowledge. These people were found in Arequipa, where they are known as Unu Kamayoq (meaning: he who guides the water, in the Inca language of Peru).

The logic behind the design of Pachamama Raymi was also different, but simple: “development” implies change, meaning that the initial task of any project in development would be to define:

• The changes to be introduced (contents, innovations)
• How many people should adopt the changes
• Exactly how these should be introduced
  

When these details would all be clear, the task left would be to introduce the innovations, achieving their adoption by the percentage of the population previously defined.

The success of a project would depend on the efficiency and effectiveness of each one of these steps.

This was the logic behind the design of Pachamama Raymi. It was questioned every step of the way in PRODERM, and the discussion still continues and repeats itself in many projects, until this date. The development of Pachamama Raymi took advantage of these controversies, making it possible that its logic improved and matured.

The first proposal already was a training system, consisting of the following elements:

• Clear and demanding targets about contents (innovations to be introduced)
• Clear and demanding targets about the number of families that should adopt the innovations, within a very short time.
  

These first two elements are the reason for the design, the foundation, of Pachamama Raymi, because it was perceived as a tool that should be able to achieve these targets.

Two additional elements were added:

• A combination of peer learning (farmer-to-farmer learning that is – horizontal learning) and motivators, most notable contests between families and between communities.
• A combination of “transcultural bridges”, tailored to the intercultural setting in which the Project operated (ideological, sociological and technological bridges). See also: Pachamama Raymi, la Fiesta de la Capacitación)(pdf), or if you have trouble reading Spanish, there is a book in English.

The first irrigation contest took place in august 1988 (or rather, there were four almost simultaneous contests, one for each of the four work areas of the project) (See the slide show Unu Kamachiq),

The contests were approved by mr. Jos Bult, European co-director, who feared that the proposal would be seen as a bit “frivolous”. The experience was evaluated by Carlos Gutiérrez (pdf), who concluded that there was a lot of enthusiasm, but that not one farmer adopted the innovations. On that bases, Willem van Immerzeel wrote thefirst proposal (pdf) for the first Pachamama Raymi contests (January 1989) and proposed to re-design the contests, to achieve adoption in daily practice. He also proposed to integrate other activities of PRODERM, besides irrigation, requiring training. By doing so, he also added another element to the training system and a new principle in rural development:

• Distribution of the project’s resources based on the quality of management as demonstrated by the people and their communities.
  

This new element of the Pachamama Raymi training system and others, were "a bit" controversial within and outside PRODERM. The proposal was rejected, but the irrigation contests were repeated, using the name “Unu Kamachiq Raymi”. Complementary contests were organized to achieve the application of the innovations (for example, contests on horticulture). Instead of the integrated proposal of Pachamama Raymi, another proposal was prepared, decided and implemented by the project teams of the four work areas: systemic focus of watersheds "enfoque sistémico de cuencas (pdf)".

Willem insisted and presented the proposal of Pachamama Raymi again in November of 1989, adding an idea of Juan Nuñez del Prado to involve the municipal authorities (November 1989 (pdf)). This time around, the proposal was accepted, after sometimes fiery debates. The municipal authorities were involved only in one (of four) work areas (Pomacanchi, Acomayo). The first contest of Pachamama Raymi was held in 1990 and ended in less then six months, in August of that same year.

PRODERM ended its activities in the field around that same date. Willem van Immerzeel and Juan Nuñez del Prado wrote a book (pdf) about the experience. Writing and editing was finished by September 1990. It was published nine months later. Two reprints were made of the book, financed by other organizations (PRODERM no longer existed). The first reprint was done by the “Coordinadora Rural”, the second by Euroconsult for the project PAC-II).

el primer libro sobre Pachamama Raymi

At the end of PRODERM, Pachamama Raymi had shown to be a powerful instrument, in the sense of making it possible to generate tangible results (many families applying a combination of innovations, within a very short time), at low cost and on a large scale. However, time was up and PRODERM closed down. The sustainable introduction of innovations was frustrated for not being able to continue for another year or two, with this recently, and imperfect tool, that still needed fine-tuning to achieve the demanding targets formulated at the beginning of its design.