Estrategias de vida de familias campesinas en la parroquia Abdón Calderón perteneciente al Cantón Santa Isabel: estudio de caso de la producción de caña de azúcar y elaboración de aguardiente

Abstract

In a globalized context and a capitalist system that leads to openness and the promotion of competitiveness, sugar cane and liquor producing families face legal pressures and regulations that affect their productive activity and marketing. Therefore, they look for ways of subsistence such as pluriactivity. In this context, the research proposes to study the current life reproduction strategies of the farmers of the Abdón Calderón parish, whose articulating axis is the cultivation of sugar cane and the production of liquor. To do this, it uses a mixed methodology. The results show that the study population is made up mainly of men, mixed race, rural, with an average age of 57 years, level of primary education and monthly income of less than $400. Its main activity is agriculture and marketing. Their production processes are characterized because they resort to ancestral practices. Men lead this activity because it is considered a job that demands strength and because the production of liquor is related to masculinity and women carry out domestic activities necessary for their development. The additional activities carried out by the families under study as life strategies are agriculture, extraction, crafts, sale of labor force and services. Regarding the conditions and political-legal contexts that make the marketing of liquor illegal, the lack of support from the authorities is considered, among others. In conclusion, the life strategies implemented by the families in the study are dynamic and changing.