Family farming in the Catamayo canton, Loja province

Abstract

Peasant family agriculture (AFC) represents a key and important segment in the economic reactivation of the Ecuadorian rural sector; it constitutes a strategy for food security, generation of agricultural employment, poverty alleviation, and conservation of natural resources and ancestral knowledge. In order to characterize the AFC in Catamayo canton, investigations of public and private institutions, as well as technical reports from INEC and MAG were reviewed, and 120 surveys were applied to family nuclei. The typology of peasant families was based on the Apollin and Eberhart methodology; Echenique’s criteria were used to identify the types of agriculture; the mode- ling of the agricultural income of the farms was carried out based on the annual income of family workers and the area used by the peasant family. According to the study, 34 % of the land is destined for short cycle crops, 13 % annual crops, 6 % mixed orchard type, 40 % natural pastures and 9% forests. 60% of families own the land, they use family and temporary wage labor, traditional technology and ancestral cultural practices. Three types of peasant family agriculture were identified: 65 % subsistence, 35 % transition and 5 % consolidated.