Abstract

ALAVA ATIENCIE, Gabriela; PERALTA VALLEJO, Ximena  and  PINO ANDRADE, Mauricio. An Analysis of the Application of Agroecological Principles in the Province of Azuay, Ecuador. Letras Verdes [online]. 2020, n.27, pp.57-70. ISSN 1390-6631.  https://doi.org/10.17141/letrasverdes.27.2020.3972.

Agroecology is an alternative for social transformation that guarantees the sustainability of life in a world that periodically faces food crisis. There is a lack of studies regarding the applicability of agroecological principles by part of organizations carrying out sustainable agriculture as part of the so called Popular and Solidarity Economy in Azuay, Ecuador. For this reason, this study aims to analyze the meaningful differences found in the application of agroecological principles by these organizations considering their antiquity, number of members, and municipal division. This research used a quantitative approach. The Multifactorial Questionnaire on Sustainability of Agroecological Organizations (MQAO) was applied to a representative sample of leaders belonging to the organizations. The study shows that most of the organizations do not practice agroecological principles fully. It demonstrates that older organizations apply agroecological principles in a larger scale than younger ones; the number of members does not influence the application of principles. There are performance differences from municipality to municipality, being Pucara and Gualaceo the municipalities with the best performance within the province of Azuay.

Keywords : agroecology; agroecological principles; associativity; Ecuador; popular and solidarity economy.

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