In March 2016 the Bolivian government announced a $40 million plan to help small and medium-sized farmers grow more of the country's food, with an official goal of producing all of its own food and ending food imports by 2020. The money was aimed at seeds, equipment and more than 20 food-security projects already running across the country. The short answer to the obvious question, did it work, is: partly. Bolivia did grow and process more food at home, but it had not stopped importing food by 2020, and it still relied on imported wheat years later.
Here is what was actually promised, why Bolivia chose small farmers as the engine of the plan, what happened next, and what the story teaches about food independence in general.
What Bolivia announced in 2016
The plan was announced on 25 March 2016 and reported by the Latin American broadcaster teleSUR and the trade site FreshPlaza. According to those reports, Marisol Solano, Bolivia's Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Agriculture, said that more than 20 projects were already under way nationwide. They supported livestock breeding (including small ruminants such as sheep and goats), fish farming, and higher production of potatoes, tomatoes, wheat, vegetables, fruit, coffee and cocoa.
Hilarion Callisaya, director of the Public Institute for Food Sovereignty (known by its Spanish initials, Ipdsa), said the institute would help farmers buy machinery and better seed so they could cut costs and raise yields per hectare. The government also claimed food production had risen by about 25% the year before, compared with 2014, and said it wanted to repeat that growth.
The headline target was ambitious: Bolivia would become the sole producer of its own food by 2020. That target is what made the story go viral around the world.
Why the plan focused on small farmers
Bolivia's interest in food independence did not start in 2016. Under President Evo Morales, the 2009 Constitution wrote food sovereignty into the country's founding law. Article 309 makes it an objective of state enterprises, and Article 405 lists support for small agricultural producers among the principles of rural development, which it calls a fundamental state priority.
The shock that pushed this agenda was the global food price crisis of 2007–2009. In response, Bolivia created a state company, EMAPA (the Enterprise for Support in Food Production), which subsidised fertiliser, bought and processed wheat and sold subsidised flour in larger towns. Researchers have argued that it did not fully protect the country from international price swings, but it showed how worried the government was about depending on imports for staples.
Small farmers matter in this picture because they grow much of the food eaten at home, such as potatoes, vegetables, maize and quinoa, while large commercial farms in the eastern lowlands focus heavily on export crops. In the department of Santa Cruz, more than 70% of farmland is reported to be devoted to soy. Supporting family farms was meant to strengthen domestic food supply and rural incomes at the same time.
Watch: teleSUR's report on Bolivia's food-security push
This video, published by teleSUR English under the title "Bolivia's winning battle for food security", presents the government's case: local production, state support and less dependence on outside suppliers. teleSUR is a state-funded regional broadcaster, so it is worth watching it as the official perspective of the time rather than as an independent evaluation.
Did Bolivia become food independent by 2020?
No. The 2020 goal was not reached in the sense the headlines suggested. Bolivia continued to import food after 2020, and wheat in particular remained a weak spot: the country has long brought in large amounts of wheat and flour to make bread, and research on Bolivian food sovereignty notes that imported wheat far outweighs traditional grains such as quinoa in volume.
There was progress, though. In October 2023, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade Benjamín Blanco said imports of food and beverages had fallen by about 25% in 2022 compared with 2021, roughly 200,000 tonnes, saving around $270 million. He listed wheat flour and grain, potatoes, rice, fruit juices and cereal products among the biggest reductions, while acknowledging that wheat was still imported. These are government figures and have not been independently audited, but they suggest a real shift toward domestic supply.
A fair summary, then: the 2016 investment was one piece of a longer policy that increased home-grown food, but full independence by 2020 was a political target, not an outcome.
Food sovereignty, food security and self-sufficiency are not the same thing
Much of the confusion around this story comes from three terms that are often used as if they were interchangeable.
- Food security means that everyone, at all times, can get enough safe and nutritious food. It says nothing about where the food comes from; a country can be food secure while importing a great deal.
- Food self-sufficiency means a country produces as much food as it consumes. Very few countries are fully self-sufficient in every product, and trying to grow everything at home can be expensive when climate and soil do not suit some crops.
- Food sovereignty, a term popularised by the farmers' movement La Vía Campesina in the 1990s, is about who controls food systems: the right of people and countries to set their own agricultural policies, with an emphasis on small producers, local markets and ecological farming.
Bolivia's policy mixed all three ideas. Investing in small farmers serves sovereignty and rural incomes; cutting imports serves self-sufficiency; and keeping staples affordable serves food security. Sometimes these goals pull in different directions, for example when the cheapest bread is made from imported wheat.
Lessons from Bolivia's experiment
A few practical lessons stand out for anyone following food policy, in Bolivia or elsewhere.
- Announcements are not results. A budget and a deadline tell you what a government intends. The useful questions come later: how much money was spent, which farmers received it, and how production, prices and nutrition changed.
- Small farmers need more than seeds. Credit, roads, storage and fair prices often decide whether a family farm can grow more. Critics of Bolivia's approach have pointed out that many smallholders still struggle to compete with agribusiness and take on expensive loans.
- Climate is part of the equation. The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development links ending hunger with supporting small-scale producers and building farming that can cope with drought and extreme weather. Andean agriculture is especially exposed to both.
- Trade-offs are real. Restrictions on genetically modified varieties of native crops protect biodiversity, but some economists argue they can raise costs. Export booms in soy and quinoa bring income yet can squeeze land used for local food.
Bolivia did not become fully food independent in four years, and no single investment could have achieved that. What it did do was put small farmers and home-grown food at the centre of national policy, an approach that is still debated, and still worth watching.
Sources: FreshPlaza: Bolivia invests in its food security (March 2016, via teleSUR); Wikipedia: Food sovereignty in Bolivia; DatamarNews: Bolivia reduces food imports (October 2023); UN General Assembly Resolution 70/1, the 2030 Agenda; video by teleSUR English. Original report by Elika Ansari for Underground Reporter via AnonHQ.
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