This is the story of Zenón Gomel Apaza, a Quechua agronomist who advocates the use of ancient skills to improve Andean farming communities’ crop yields and ensure variety. Most Quechua live in the Andean Altiplano and rely on subsistence agriculture. After completing university studies in agronomy and returning to his home village in the Peruvian Andes, he realized that the modern farming methods he had studied didn’t match the reality of the Altiplano and often resulted in failed crops, depleted soils and dysfunctional communities.