Abstract
Vichada is a department of more than 100,000 km2 in territorial extension, which, due to its geographical characteristics and a context of historical violence, found difficulties in synergizing with the rest of the country. Currently, the region is known for producing outstanding quality cashews with the potential to meet national and international markets. The demand for cashews has a global growth of 7% per year, while the rate of production only reaches 6%. Various production and transformation processes have been established in the region thanks to community experimentation and iteration, which has attracted the attention of the public and private sector who see in it opportunities to boost the economic and social development of the region. The proposal of a project to take advantage of cashew by-products and the development of a prototype opening machine that encourages the participation of small and medium producers in the sector is an example of this. The execution of this project was carried out under a participatory approach, to recognize existing dynamics associated with cultivation practices, production and transformation. We implemented three workshops that allowed: (1) to visualize relevant actors, (2) to identify technological and human capacities throughout the entire cashew chain, and (3) to co-create models of opening machine proposals. In this chapter, we present the results of the workshops, which evidence the extensive knowledge of the territory by the local community and allow to build a more detailed picture of the factors that will later influence the dynamics of the use of the machine. At the same time, they allow to recognize both the most important actors as well as the less visible ones, thus facilitating the execution of a much more inclusive technological transfer by recognizing the need to propose solutions that contribute to the development of design and technology led circular model, which contemplates the differences present in the daily life of the different members of the community, associated with the particularities of the territory.