Family Farming as a Contribution to Food Sovereignty, Case Guarainag Parish

Graciela Verdugo, Gina Cuadrado () and Yonimiler Castillo
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Graciela Verdugo: Faculty of Postgraduate, School of Economics, Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Cuenca 010107, Ecuador
Gina Cuadrado: Faculty of Postgraduate, School of Economics, Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Cuenca 010107, Ecuador
Yonimiler Castillo: Faculty of Postgraduate, School of Economics, Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Cuenca 010107, Ecuador

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: The objective of this research is to analyze how family farming contributes to food sovereignty; the Guarainag parish of the Paute canton in the province of Azuay-Ecuador is taken as a case of study. This work responds to the necessity to explain the elements that impact food sovereignty in the existing food crisis in Latin America and specifically in Ecuador in search of self-sufficiency for healthy food products and people’s own local culture. For this purpose, a Food Sovereignty Index was constructed through ten quantitative and qualitative indicators. The research has a correlational and explanatory scope; quantitative methods were used to measure food sovereignty through a binary logit regression model, which provided an answer to the hypothesis of the research, which consisted of testing the influence of family farming on food sovereignty. Furthermore, to collect the information, a survey was applied to 372 small farmers with the support of digital mapping and the Kobol Tulboox software version 1.27.3. The result was a Food Sovereignty Index of 59.79%, which, according to the scale used, places the territory in a high average. In addition, the hypothesis was verified, concluding that there is a direct relationship among the following elements of family farming such as number of household members, family labor, group of products, type of animals, tillage technology, natural fertilizer, and altitudinal levels with food sovereignty. For future research, it is recommended that the variable of climate change has to be incorporated in order to observe its impact on food sovereignty.

Keywords: family farming; food sovereignty; agricultural; diversification; family labor force (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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