The agri-food system (re)configuration: the case study of an agroecological network in the Ecuadorian Andes

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dc.contributor.authorVallejo‑Rojas, Virginia
dc.contributor.authorRivera‑Ferre, Marta G.
dc.contributor.authorRavera, Fedrica
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-30T07:15:32Z
dc.date.available2023-06-30T07:15:32Z
dc.date.issued2022-06-08
dc.description© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Version of Scholarly Record of this Article is published in Agriculture and Human Values, 2022, available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-022-10318-1 . Keywords: Andes; food sovereignty; Mestizo peasents; Saraguro; Indigenous people; socio-ecological system.
dc.description.abstractSocial Ecological System (SES) research highlights the importance of understanding the potential of collective actions, among other factors, when it comes to influencing the transformative (re)configuration of agri-food systems in response to global change. Such a response may result in different desired outcomes for those actors who promote collective action, one such outcome being food sovereignty. In this study, we used an SES framework to describe the configuration of local agri-food systems in Andean Ecuador in order to understand which components of the SES interact, and how they support outcomes linked to five food sovereignty goals. Through a survey administered to mestizo and indigenous peasants, we analyze the key role played by the Agroecological Network of Loja (RAL) in transforming the local agri-food system through the implementation of a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS). This study demonstrates that participation in the RAL and PGS increases farmers’ adoption of agroecological practices, as well as their independence from non-traditional food. Additionally, RAL lobbying with the municipality significantly increases households’ on-farm income through access to local markets. Being part of indigenous communities also influences the configuration of the food system, increasing the participation in community work and access to credit and markets, thus positively affecting animal numbers, dairy production and income diversification. The complexity of the interactions described suggests that more research is needed to understand which key factors may foster or prevent the achieving of food sovereignty goals and promote household adaptation amid high uncertainty due to global change.
dc.description.sponsorshipAcknowledgements: We thank Narcisa Medina and Rovin Andrade, local leaders of the rural Andean parishes Jimbilla and San Lucas of the Loja canton; and, Nancy Huaca, coordinator of the Agroecological Network of Loja (RAL); who have shown their aperture for carrying out the research in eight communities of their locality and have shared their experiences and knowledges. This research was part of a PhD study funded by the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) of Ecuadorian government. The corresponding author has been funded by AXA Research Fund (2016) and Ramón i Cajal fellowship (RYC2018-025958-I) funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spain). Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature.
dc.identifier.citationVallejo-Rojas, V., Rivera-Ferre, M.G. & Ravera, F. The agri-food system (re)configuration: the case study of an agroecological network in the Ecuadorian Andes. Agric Hum Values 39, 1301–1327 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10318-1
dc.identifier.otherhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10318-1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14096/402
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSpringer Nature
dc.titleThe agri-food system (re)configuration: the case study of an agroecological network in the Ecuadorian Andes
dc.typeArticle

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