For example, the Núgku myth is one of the most important for Awajún horticulture and ceramics. It is said that the yucca plant was gifted by a woman named Núgkui to humans. Núgkui grew all the food plants in abundance and produced large quantities of masato served in ceramic pots. The myth is still present among the Awajún, inhabiting the land and helping to cultivate plants so that they grow quickly.

Today the women know that cassava plants can grow without magical rituals, however, they are convinced that these help the plants grow quickly, grow to a large size, and remain free of weeds or pests. Indeed each stage of the horticultural cycle (clearing, soil preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, and tuber cleaning) has its own characteristic song (Brown & Bolt, 1980).

On the other hand, the Awajún chacras have a mixed cultivation strategy, as it is believed that yucca plantations will only grow when they are planted alongside other crops. This technique is based on the belief that the plantations have social relationships like humans. The plants communicate with the women who cultivate them, since being responsible for their care they are like their ‘mother’.

‘There are ‘mingas’ or collective tasks in many forms. There are mingas to open the ‘chacra’ or small farm of a family, where they prepare masato to share for when they do the minga, and the chacra is opened, for the women who do not have the support of friendship or family, they open their chacra on their own (...) they plant, yucca, sweet potato, sachapapa, bananas of different kinds, like silk, guineo. There are also different kinds of yuccas, some are a few months old, some are more than a few months old, some are a year old. The chacra is made in the summer because it has to burn (...) The suri is eaten, it is a balanced food, it is the beloved food. The suris come from the aguaje, pijuayo and a series of palm trees. The suri is eaten raw, grilled, in salads’. Luz Milla, Santa Maria de Nieva.

Hunting is also vitally important for the Awajun and Wampis livelihood system. They hunt the medium or small animals such as the sajino, huangana, majas, carachupa, monkeys and birds instead of the large animals of the jungle such as the deer, or the sachavaca. The use of blowguns or ‘pucunas’ with poisoned arrows were their main hunting weapon, however, with the arrival of the Europeans to their territory, they began to use shotguns, while also raising smaller animals such as pigs and chickens.

‘When they went hunting, they went far away, they took yucca, it takes them a week, so they take their cookers, pots, salt, and matches. When they don't hunt easily, they cure us with sacha ajo, they diet for three days or a week, and from there they go hunting, from there they easily find the animals’.  Efrain, Achu community, Cenepa river.

‘Women and men can go hunting. They go hunting with dogs, that was the custom, because before there were many animals and many birds, and as there were so many, they would bring one, two or three in one day, but now there are no more (...) the Awajún do not eat sachavaca or deer, the deer they said was the soul of someone, the sachavaca because they did not like to eat it, there were other preferred meats, there was the sajino, the huangana, monkey, that was their best food. The animals have their own spirit and soul, even the dog, it is called huakan’. Mariluz, San Antonio community, Cenepa river.

Since 1970, the Ministry of Agriculture and SINAMOS have promoted the cultivation of rice and maize as an alternative for local development, as these products can be offered in markets on the coast. Currently, coffee is grown in the highlands, rice in the lowlands, and cocoa and soya have also been introduced. Women continue to engage in subsistence agriculture, rarely participating in the commercialisation of their products (CARE Peru, 2009).