Influencia de la estructura agraria en la economía campesina agroecológica y no agroecológica en estudios de caso en las comunidades indígenas Cañaris de Shiña y Chunazana, cantón Nabón

Abstract

Agrarian structure conditions the development of small-scale peasant agriculture, as well as its breakdown by linking it in a progressive manner to the market economy and agro-industry. This study evaluates how agroecology contributes to halting the advance of the impacts of capital on the familiar economy, determining for this the influence of the agrarian structure on peasant economies with an agro-ecological and non-agro-ecological productive matrix. The research was conducted in indigenous communities of Nabón canton, Azuay province, based on nine study cases focused on three types of Family Peasant Agriculture: consolidated agro-ecological, in transition to agroecology, and conventional. The Methodology of Economic-Ecological Evaluation of Agroecosystems (Petersen et al., 2017) was used and adapted to measure the levels of autonomy and sustainability of agroecosystems. In addition, a review of secondary sources and semi-structured interviews with key actors were also used. The results suggest that access to land is the determining factor that limits economic reproduction in all types of Family Peasant Agriculture, subjecting them to a progressive process of minifundization, despite the fact that these are located in indigenous territories. Other factors such as access to water, direct markets, and technified irrigation affect differently the types of Family Peasant Agriculture. Despite these limitations, the cases of agro-ecological and transitional agriculture show higher levels of productive autonomy and sustainability with respect to conventional agriculture. Those factors are determinant to avoid - prevent the breakdown of this type of economies