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| Type: |
Academic thesis |
| Language |
English |
| Year of publication: |
2009 |
| Citation: |
Sherwood, S., 2009. Learning from Carchi: agricultural modernisation and the production of decline. PhD. Thesis, Wageningen University. 286 p. |
| Authors: |
Stephen Sherwood |
| Target countries: |
Ecuador |
| Download: |
edepot.wur.nl/7207.. |
| Summary |
Provided substantial natural endowments, an educated rural public, infrastructure, and ample market access, the highland region of Carchi, Ecuador is potentially one of the most productive farming regions in the Andes. In the 1960s, development experts targeted Carchi as a model for agricultural modernisation built on the intensification of smallholder potato production through land re-distribution, industrial-era technologies, and market integration. Following a fifteen-year period of financial success and accumulation, by the turn of the Century a growing number of families began to experience production failures, leading many to abandon agriculture.
During the 1990s a multi-disciplinary team of international scientists studied the pathologies of Carchense agriculture in search of viable alternatives. Extensive research and modelling identified a number of environmental, health and productivity problems that placed into question the long-term viability of modern agriculture. Following the identification of promising 'impact points' and scientifically established 'best practice', the team invested substantial effort in devising and publicly demonstrating the feasibility of alternatives. Nevertheless, the crisis for smallholder producers continued and, over time, deepened.
Drawing on over a decade of direct research and development practice, this dissertation explores the rise and fall of agricultural modernisation in Carchi. Through ex-post analyses of technology development and interventions, the author examines how different levels of stakeholders - farmers, extensionsts, commercial companies, public agencies, and politicians -- became locked into a non-adaptive, lethal, and ultimately self-destructive system of food production. The study ends by calling attention to needed institutional changes in Science and Development for greater resilience in agriculture and more promising futures.
See http://wurtv.wur.nl/P2GTV/SilverLightviewer.html?path=aulatv/2009/06/08/2/&source=Archive&publishingpoint=recordings&mmsrv=mms://mediaserver.wur.nl&websrv=http://wurtv.wur.nl/presentations/recordings for the video of the Thesis defense.
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