case studies

What do small-scale farmers in Ecuador think?

Interviews by Progressio's development worker Michelle Lowe in September 07

Jose Nacipucha and Edmira Vangari in San Vicente sector, in Octavio Cordero Parish, Azuay Province, Ecuador

José and Edmira's land is on the outskirts of the small community of San Vicente. To reach their land you pass by many other plots most with people bend double, howing, harvesting or weeding. People farm using basic manual techniques. There is no machinery and in one field we passed a man who was ploughing with oxen.

José and Edmira use basic hand tools to farm their land organically. They have a poly-tunnel green house, a small pen with pigs and chickens and a plot with rows of vegetables. They are middle-aged with two adult children: a son who now does not farm with them but works for a salary elsewhere, and a daughter who is disabled and cannot work but accompanies them in the fields. They are working in the cold drizzle when we arrive, harvesting huge cabbages.

Most of their food comes from their land

José: Most of what we eat we eat from here. We don't buy anything from the town. All that we buy is rice, pasta… but very little. We have our own chickens next to the house. We get everything from here, guinea pig meat, chicken, eggs, vegetables. …[and] every week we take a large amount to market now: three big sacks full of vegetables, two or three crates full of lettuces on a Sunday, 15 chickens sometimes, 150 eggs…. But on Thursdays less.

Edmira: To begin with we used to grow less - we didn't have any market. Then when we organised and started working with the local council and the engineer (Frederic Hala who works in organic production), we started to really work and go into Cuenca as part of the group that goes to market…where we have stands as agroecological producers. There are 280 of us selling as agroecological producers in the market, 150 of us from this province.

Producers share seeds at exchange events

José: I save seeds here - papa nabo we produce here, Chinese turnip gives seeds here, Chinese chard I have now produced here too. We had a seed exchange event in Sigsig and lots of people took my seeds. Very few people have the papa nabo seeds.

I have also got hold of seeds at exchange events - the seeds for the Papa Nabo, and the Chinese chard I got a year ago at a seed exchange event in Tumbacho and I am now trying to continue producing them. I have a few and I'm going to sow them again to produce more plants and save more seeds.

Lots of things which I brought back from the seed event like some different varieties of beans, have produced a few and little by little I'm making them grow here. I just sow them to see how they do here. They have grown - not really really well - but they have grown and increased the seeds that I have.

Seed exchanges aren't very common. Last year it was August 22nd in Tumbacho, the events of the Red de Guardianes de Semillas (Network of Seed Stewards). I brought back lots of seeds from there. There were about 70 over us from all over the country including the coast - and from Colombia.

Farmers are already having trouble harvesting seeds from imported plants
Edmira: We have heard of GM seeds, because you know what is happening now is that we are losing our native seeds and seeds from elsewhere are coming in, for example from New York and they are selling well and they come saying they are great seeds but they are not our own. They are not from here.

But the corn and potatoes which we plant come from here and we save the seeds each time and sow them. But with vegetables we can't, we have to buy everything. They are expensive - seven or eight dollars each and if they don't grow then it is money lost.

José: In the past, a long time ago - like 15 years ago when I can remember- there was only one type of lettuce. Nobody grew all the varieties we have now. We grew corn, kidney beans, broad beans, barely, pumpkin and other things that all come from here. And as they all produce seeds here, there was no need to go and buy seeds.

Nelson Ramon Mamallacta Alvarado of the Lushian Mariposa community, near Archidona, in Tena, Napo, Ecuador

Nelson, 42, his wife, daughter and extended family live just outside a small indigenous Kichwa community of about 100 people called Lushian Mariposa, near Archidona in the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle, a six hour journey southeast of the capital Quito. The community does not have electricity or running water.

The family is part of a local seed saving network and involved in setting up a native plant nursery and an agroecology centre to conserve seeds. The family has been very involved in environmental work and activism and feel that western culture has had a strong negative influence on local indigenous people and they are making a conscious effort to preserve, live and value indigenous cultures.

The Lushian Mariposa community share seeds

Nelson: We try to save all the seeds we can and to promote others doing the same. Many indigenous communities have lost their seeds and their traditional practices. It is a hugely important issue. We have to save seeds - it is not just about agriculture it is about culture and our ancestral practices.

I save seeds and I am part of the national seedsavers network. I'm also in contact with seed savers from all over the world. I try to tell people that anyone can be part of the seedsaving network all you have to do is collect some of your seeds and give them to one of the centres or to others.

Normally, here in the community, we exchange seeds informally amongst ourselves - not so much at events but asking neighbours for varieties we don't have or bringing plants from elsewhere ourselves.

The community is trying to save its ancient knowledge

I want it to help people to recover their ancestral culture. I'd like to try to get it to be taught in schools because the children in the school here in Archidona now don't learn anything about plants. They have no idea which plant is which or what it does and the knowledge is being lost. If you stopped a child here and asked him what a plant was he would say ' I don't know -my dad knows ask him' and the truth is that the father might or might not know.

We are losing our ancient knowledge. It is not being passed on because people don't recount stories and transmit the knowledge now, and children don't ask. We need to recover and value our culture.

We, my family and my community, are protecting our food security and saving our seeds but others are losing it entirely and have become dependent on buying food and buying seeds. I would say the majority do not now save seeds. People are becoming more urbanised.

The threat of Terminator technology

People here do not understand what GM seeds are. There is almost no awareness at all of the threat. They are going to come and they are going to keep trying to bring genetically modified seeds to our country. We need to work together to prevent them from coming to Latin America.

Terminator technology would be a danger not only to our environment but also to us and to our culture. Seeds are life. We are seeds.

It is another incursion into our lands and our lives, like the petrol and government projects. It is all about big companies trying to make money, not about improving the quality of our lives. We are trying to get anyone in our community who is approached by a company or product to bring it to the group before signing it so that we can really all assess the proposal together first.