Agrobiodiversity enables rural family farmers to cope with the dynamics and shocks that are inherent in farming, especially weather and market fluctuations and pests.

For villages in high altitude and risk-prone environments, such as the Ecuadorian Highland Andes, this is especially important. In the words of farmer Julio Guamo from Naubug village in Chimborazo, “With agrobiodiversity we can produce many different crops. If one does not succeed, others survive, so we don’t lose everything and are able to eat in difficult times.”

Nevertheless, numerous studies in our region showed that on-farm genetic resources have been in sharp decline over the last half-century. Something had to be done.

Farmers as custodians of seeds

Despite owning just 20% of the land and water resources dedicated to agriculture in Ecuador, smallholder family farms provide more than 70% of the country’s staple products. Farmers have historically conserved these traditional seeds and the knowledge about how to use them that form the basis of this food production. Smallholder family farmers are the largest supplier of seeds of both improved and local varieties for the majority of Andean crops. “Improved” seed varieties have never constituted more than 1-2% of planting material in Ecuador.

Since the 1960s, agricultural policies that favoured monocultures and export-led production have neglected smallholder management of genetic resources and weakened the role of the state in improving knowledge and organisation among small farmer systems. Undoubtedly, Ecuador’s current farmer seed system is one of the most conspicuous forms of social self-organisation, encompassing an extensive network of actors, traditions and institutions that has vigorously resisted the influence of external actors and agricultural policies.

Recently, there has been more political and scientific recognition of local biodiversity as a critical element for maintaining resilient and dynamic agricultural systems. For instance, a recent ministerial decree recognises the potential of smallholder family farmers to produce and market potato seeds. The Bill of Agrobiodiversity and Seeds, currently subject to heated debate in the National Assembly, also recognises farmers’ seeds and the need to strengthen the informal system.

Action research on agrobiodiversity

Despite these positive trends, smallholder management of agrobiodiversity is at great risk, as we found in the communities in the central highland provinces of Bolivar, Chimborazo and Cotopaxi between 2007 and 2012.

To assess the state of these communities’ on-farm agrobiodiversity and locally run seed systems, we worked with farming communities to document and share their knowledge about genetic resources and the functions in their lives, as well as on knowledge and practices tied to the management, availability, access and control of seeds.

In addition to conducting approximately 800 surveys with farmers in more than 30 communities, we carried out participatory assessments using a variety of tools for community management of agro-biodiversity. Timelines, transects, focus groups, mapping of farms, and lists of agro-biodiversity were accompanied by a method called Participatory Four Cell Analysis (see also p. 40). This entails in-depth discussion on the destinations of specific crops, their sale, terms of trade, and family consumption, revealing the relevance and importance of particular crops.

We motivated the farmers to start a dialogue about their genetic resources, because it is often felt that only when things are expressed and said, they exist. The main objective of this participatory process was therefore to make visible to the community the role and function of their seeds, and to recognise those individuals with outstanding knowledge and capacity to conserve biodiversity.

Disappearing varieties

Our findings showed that, despite their high nutritional values and historic importance for food security, Andean roots and tubers such as mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), oca (Oxalis tuberosa), jícama (Pachyrhizus erosus) and melloco (Ullucus tuberosus) have become infrequent. According to the farmers, several factors have contributed to the decline of these traditional crops. They include the expansion of monoculture planting and market-driven agriculture, which commonly emphasise the cultivation of “European” vegetables. Farmers also mentioned changes in traditional weather patterns, which have increased the risk of crop failure and, as a consequence, the loss of seeds.

The results of our research, some of them summarised in the table, illustrate the systematic loss of community knowledge and control of their biological resources. However, the table also shows that there are farmers who are passionate about managing plants and seeds. These individual leaders hold tremendous value for the transmission of knowledge and the enhancement of socio-technical innovations.

New initiatives

“It was crucial to make the role and function of the seeds visible to the community”

Following this analysis, we strengthened farmers’ awareness of, and control over, their biological resources. For example, we enabled community members to visualise the multiple relationships between farming families and their biological resources and seeds and their livelihood priorities.

We assisted local farmer leaders with conducting experimental learning activities with other farmers, seed circulation, botany, and genetics, by using field days, tours, and farmer-to-farmer exchanges. As a result of this combination of research and action, communities are now more aware and better equipped to start building control over their biological resources.

Recently, communities have started to (re)construct, strengthen and expand their own seed banks. For each seed that farmers receive from the bank, they return two after their harvest. This is a multipurpose support fund: it protects the seed varieties and generates products for continued circulation. A number of pilot banks are now operating with good results. This success is arousing curiosity among other neighbouring communities, who are in the process of setting up their own exchange systems and seed banks. We also identified highly innovative families and worked to build them into a support network of like-minded peers. Through research organisations, they accessed germplasm stored in gene banks, especially to recover lost potato varieties.

Nevertheless, such efforts in the use and conservation of biodiversity will be at risk without new economic models that recognise the value of local food products. If there is no demand for local food, there will be no use for local seeds. In the last four years we have also encouraged a crucial complementary process that connects urban citizens directly with rural producers so that they can access fresh, healthy local food. This stimulates farmers to continue growing a variety of crops using agro-ecological practices, reconnecting the cultural and political aspects of food. Already, we see that this is having a very positive impact on health, the environment and the local economy.

Slowly but steadily building change

We started small with short, inspiring experiences, which have enabled community members and organisations to become active stakeholders with vested interests in the process. These processes take time to implement, but once they become embedded in the community structure they are ultimately much more sustainable.

The result has been a slow but steady counter-movement against the continued loss of biodiversity in these communities. Several actors, including non-governmental organisations, universities, research institutes and local governments have begun to promote discussion on the value and relevance of conserving and utilising native biodiversity.

Urban organisations are actively involved in the discussion on the new laws of food sovereignty, agrobiodiversity and seeds, among others. Both the community members and ourselves feel that this experience needs to be continued and expanded to new crops and territories.

For us, the key factor of success has been to work with (rather than against) local experiences. Everywhere, even under the most difficult conditions of hardship and social marginalisation, there are always families that are capable of defending and advancing their own on-farm biodiversity. We find great hope and inspiration in these families. The challenge is in finding ways to strengthen their knowledge and to build linkages with other like-minded people to stand firm against the ongoing threats and mass-marketing of industrial agriculture and industrial foods.

Ross Mary Borja, Pedro Oyarzún, Sonia Zambrano, Francisco Lema and Efraín Pallo

Ross Mary Borja, Pedro Oyarzún, Sonia Zambrano, Francisco Lema and Efraín Pallo work with the EkoRural Foundation in Quito, Ecuador.
E-mail: rborja@ekorural.org.

The authors wish to thank the participating campesino organisations from the Central Highlands, Steve Sherwood, Keely McCaskie, the McKnight Foundation, the Dutch Embassy, the Tidlund Foundation, the Swift Foundation, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for their contributions.

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Over several decades, intermediaries have acquired more and more power in influencing how urban families in Ecuador acquire their food. As part of this process, the urban population has progressively lost track of the different relationships and meanings generated through food procurement.

At the same time, agricultural production is less shaped by the local context and culture. The growing distance between producers and consumers means that consumers have lost touch with the farms or region where their food comes from, producers don’t know who will eat their products, and both groups are increasingly vulnerable to the interests of intermediaries.

The development of longer chains is a main characteristic of the modern food system. Consumers and producers do not know one another (and it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to know one another), farmers’ incomes are falling, consumers’ choices are limited, and diets are less varied and less healthy.

Based on a renewed relationship between producers to consumers, the concept of local food networks is becoming increasingly relevant. Various examples of direct access to markets, or of “shortcuts to commercialisation”, have emerged as a reaction to the growing power exerted by intermediaries and a handful of supermarkets, showing that families, when they organise, have the potential to change a difficult situation.

One of the best examples is that of the Canastas Comunitarias. These started in the 1980s as urban consumer groups, with members pooling funds to make bulk purchases, which are then divided among the families in the group, giving them substantial savings. Today, the Canastas Comunitarias are a national network of urban, lower class families who have crafted an alternative model that helps them save money, while providing access to quality food.

But what first started as a collective purchasing mechanism to save citizens money, slowly led participants to question the origins and ways in which the food they consume is produced. Many consumers openly started to question the value of saving money by buying food produced with chemical inputs. This encouraged them to approach farmers in search for answers and closer ties, helping the Canastas Comunitarias to become a tool to strengthen the relationship with producers.

Tzimbuto and Canasta Comunitaria Utopía

With approximately 250 inhabitants, Tzimbuto is a small, rural community located in the province of Chimborazo, in Ecuador’s central highlands. It is one of the areas where EkoRural, a local development organisation, had been supporting a farmer-led initiative.

Farmers have different plots spread throughout the area, where they grow a variety of crops. At an average altitude of 3,000 m above sea level, these plots contain various crops, medicinal plants and fruit trees, forming a mosaic of diversity.

At the beginning of 2010, the Asociación Nueva Generación, which is mostly made up of women from Tzimbuto, met the leaders of Canasta Comunitaria Utopía, one of Ecuador’s oldest canastas, which is based in the nearby city of Riobamba. Having previously worked with both groups, EkoRural saw the opportunity to bring together their complementary interests around food consumption and production, and facilitated the initial meetings. Our interest in building stronger consumer- producer relationships was mainly a response to the producers’ recurring preoccupation with their limited bargaining power, the low prices they received for their products, and the seemingly unjust benefits that families – both urban and rural – gave to intermediaries.

Three years later, around 50 farmers regularly deliver their products to the canasta, and these are taken to consumers in Riobamba. Today, the producers provide approximately 25% of the purchases made by the Canasta Utopía (and about 50% of the vegetables). The Tzimbuto farmers make an average profit rate of 80% – approximately twice what they make when selling the same products to the wholesale retailer. Their association is also stronger than before and they have put mechanisms in place to encourage other neighbours to join.

At the same time, the advantages for members of the canasta in Riobamba are clear: they pay half of what they would otherwise have to pay in the city supermarkets or retailers. The canasta pays the farmers in Tzimbuto the same that they paid to wholesalers in the past, but get better quality products (environmentally-friendly products, free from pesticides and other chemicals) for the same price.

Establishing linkages

While stronger links between consumers and producers give many advantages, building these new relationships is not always a straightforward process. We saw some initial difficulties because of the cultural differences between the rural and urban families, and some producers found it difficult to avoid the use of pesticides and other harmful production practices that they were used to. This created some difficulties when trying to co-ordinate the efforts of both parties, ensure the quality of all products, and build a trust-based relationship.

Yet all the participants found that working together for change opened up exciting new possibilities, starting with the identification of the relationships and reciprocities that had been lost, and which they all wanted to rebuild. Both groups wanted a good business deal; consumers also wanted to gain access to healthy food, while farmers were interested in knowing more about those eating their products, their tastes and preferences. Members of the Asociación began planning in detail what to grow and when, organising a more efficient way of providing the required products.

A process of produce diversification led to the introduction of new species and varieties, including indigenous potato varieties and crops such as mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), oca (Oxalis tuberosa), arracha (Arracacia xantorrhiza), and melloco (Ullucus tuberosus), all of which became gradually available for selling and consumption. In addition, farmers started paying more attention to their own farming practices, the clear advantages of crop rotations, associations, and the use of manure. Looking back, these practices have had a major impact on the availability of new foods for families in both Tzimbuto and Riobamba.

How to achieve all this was essential for a lasting change. The farmers agreed on the need to strengthen their own organisation and to assign clear roles and responsibilities within it. They also agreed to capitalise their organisation by giving back to the group twice as much as they receive from it (in the form of inputs, seeds and other materials). To guarantee the origin and quality of production, the association created a committee to oversee all operations, and named a community leader to ensure that the products meet the established criteria.

Without a doubt, the successes seen have been the result of the leadership efforts of farmer members like Elena Tenelema, and of the inspiration and motivation of Roberto Gortaire, Lupe Ruiz and all those behind the canastas. There is now a co-ordinated system of production and delivery in place which gives all members the opportunity of participating, and benefitting.

A force for change

The link between Canasta Comunitaria Utopia and Tzimbuto demonstrates that the creation of new, healthier relationships between urban and rural families has clear and direct benefits. These are not limited to the creation of a more stable market, better prices for farmers and better quality products for consumers.

Both groups have also learnt about the importance of a sustainable approach to agriculture, of having a strong organisation, about the role and contribution of volunteers, the need to plan and co-ordinate activities in detail, and also about quality – something that faceless consumers never demand. These efforts are showing how the commercialisation of farm products can become a major force for healthier living, with immediate (and highly positive) economic, social and environmental consequences. This is all even clearer when we take the true costs of modern food into account.

There is an enormous potential for strengthening such practices that are based on people’s inter-dependence and their endless creativity. The existing wealth that is already invested in food production and consumption can be used to strengthen urban and rural organisations. It can also help address the exclusion of certain sectors in our communities and societies and open up spaces for more pluralism and democracy, for example, by involving schools, hospitals, and community organisations. Eating is perhaps our most basic activity, but its potential as a tool for change has been neglected and forgotten. The resources are already in place. They just need to be re-invested and re-placed for new social purposes.

Ross M. Borja, Pedro Oyarzún, Sonia Zambrano and Francisco Lema

Ross Borja, Pedro Oyarzún, Sonia Zambrano and Francisco Lema work at Fundación EkoRural, Quito, Ecuador.
E-mail: rborja@ekorural.org
The authors acknowledge the valuable inputs of the leaders and members of both organisations, as well as their passion and commitment. They thank Carlos Perez and Claire Nicklin for their advice, and the McKnight Foundation for its support. The valuable comments of Jason Donovan of ICRAF and Steve Brescia of Groundswell International are also acknowledged.

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