Potatoes, the basic staple of highland Indians since pre-Inca times, remained the most valuable food crop in the late 1980s. In 1988 around 190,200 hectares, mostly in the highlands, produced 701,000 tons of potatoes. These figures compared unfavorably, with 1975, when 127,700 hectares provided 834,500 tons of potatoes, indicating that yields were decreasing. Bolivia was generally self-sufficient in potatoes, but imports were needed during occasional times of drought or freezing. Bolivia also exported some of its harvest to Brazil. The deficiency of new seed varieties, chemical fertilizers, and irrigation systems, together with the continued exhaustion of the highland soils, was responsible for the low yields. In the late 1980s, the deficiency of financial credit at planting time described the greatest impediment facing potato growers.

Other farm animal included chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, vicuņas, and even buffalo. Chicken production also was centered in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz departments and experienced strong growth in the 1980s. Although the poultry industry faced high feed costs and substantial Chilean contraband, it produced 25 million broilers and 201.5 million eggs in 1988. The pork industry, also facing high feed costs, remained small. The pig population was around at slightly over 1 million, and the annual slaughter was roughly 45,500 tons of pork. Santa Cruz was expected to be the location of the pork industry's future growth.