When Youth Draw What Matters: Native Crops, Climate Change, and Connection
You can feel the shift.
The rains do not come when they used to.
Crops wither.
Pests like the Andean weevil thrive.
In the highlands of Cotopaxi, climate change is not a theory, it is a lived reality. Families rely on farming, and when the land suffers, so do livelihoods, traditions, and entire ways of life.
Ask the youth what they know about potato agrobiodiversity, and most will mention “Super Chola”, a common variety grown for market. But varieties like Coneja Negra or Leona Negra, both known for surviving droughts, often draw blank stares. Mashua, another native Andean tuber with pest-repelling properties, is rarely seen as food anymore. It is remembered mostly for its medicinal use, if at all.
That is the gap this capacity-strengthening event set out to bridge.
In collaboration with the University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), the Technical University of Cotopaxi, EkoRural Foundation, the INIAP (the National Agriculture Research Center), and the International Potato Center (CIP), a scientific illustration course was launched, not just to teach drawing, but to reconnect youth with their agrobiodiversity heritage and raise awareness of climate resilience. This was done under the project “Andean Crop Diversity for Climate Change” supported by Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC), and the University San Francisco de Quito.
Eleven youth from rural communities and nearby universities joined the five-session course. Three sessions were held in person and the rest were online. Participants visited University San Francisco to learn the principle of botanical illustration: detailed observation and drawing. Drawing nature requires a deep observation of different subjects and breaking paradigms to “draw what we actually see” in place draw what “we have been thought to see”. This is a deep reflection process that makes us appreciate the rich details of nature.
Students also visited the USFQ Herbarium where they learned how plants are documented and preserved and saw firsthand that some native crops are barely represented – even in scientific records. Later, the Technical University of Cotopaxi hosted sessions where participants worked mainly on how to mix colour to capture the details of samples of native potatoes and mashua provided by the International Potato Center.
Some participants chose to illustrate Chaucha Roja, a native potato variety known for surviving even in difficult seasons. One participant shared:
“Chaucha Roja faces many challenges like drought, but it stays resilient to climate change and continues to produce.”
Others focused on other native potatoes after speaking with grandparents who remembered planting them but had stopped due to the labour and pest issues:
“What my grandmother told me is that they used to plant it, but not anymore, because it requires more care and there are more pests. Still, it is a crop that is more resistant to drought… so it could really help with climate change.”
Some insights were straightforward but powerful:
“Yes, it helped us. During the drought season, it held up well with compost. So yes, it helped me for food.” (Referring to the potato)
The resulting illustrations were not just botanical, they were cultural and ecological. Each one carried a story, a memory, and a perspective on how these native crops can support adaptation in a changing climate.
To celebrate these efforts, the youth’s work was exhibited along the work of 19 artists, from 18th to 25th May at QGalery from the San Francisco de Quito University and the Botanical Garden in Quito. This exhibition was part of a global event: Wordwide Bontanical Art 2025, to showcase this discipline across the world. The exhibition placed local crop diversity at the centre, through the eyes and hands of the youth who are reclaiming it.
Reflections from the Process
This experience left us with several powerful takeaways:
- Youth need space to explore. When given the time and tools to connect with their own cultural and ecological heritage, they do not just participate, they take ownership.
- Dialogue creates change. Conversations with parents and grandparents sparked not just knowledge sharing, but pride in crops and practices that had been overlooked or forgotten.
- Context matters. Young people do not talk about climate change the same way scientists do, but they understand it deeply through their lived experience. Letting them express that through art made it real, personal, and lasting.
- Art renews connection with nature: The simple process of observation and drawing creates a powerful link between the artist, the observer and the subject. It helps us to question us about the nature that surrounds us and makes us remember how our lives are linked to nature.
This capacity-strengthening event reminded us that young people are not just future leaders. They are current voices. And when they are invited into the conversation with respect and creativity, they draw more than just plants.
They draw connections.
They draw awareness.
They draw change.
This blog was written by Israel Navarrete, Associate Scientist, CIP, in collaboration with Bettina Heider (CIP) and Jenny Ordoñez, by San Francisco de Quito University.
