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Multiple trends in interspecific crop diversity: a longitudinal case study from the Ecuadorian Andes

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Abstract

This case study reports on recent developments in the extent of interspecific crop diversity in Cotacachi located in the Northern Ecuadorian Andes. Like in many other regions, trends of genetic erosion led to simplified fields with reduced levels of crop diversity in this area during the twentieth century. The present study examines whether, at the crop level, this reduction continued after the millennium shift. The problem is approached through a longitudinal comparison of crop richness on surveyed farms in 2003 and 2009. The results display multiple trends; while a few field crops remained stable in terms of their presence among farms, some increased and others decreased their role. Simultaneously, there was a marked increase in the planting of vegetables and fruits in home gardens. On a general level, these varied trends resulted in a significant rise in farms’ average crop richness amounting to five more crops, as well as an overall 42 % increase in the frequency with which any crop was planted among the farms. The observed trends are discussed in the light of local sociocultural, economic and agroclimatic changes.

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Notes

  1. Even if this most often is the case, there is not always a one to one correspondence between the taxonomic units of crops and crop species. I will in this paper focus on crops as the unit of analysis, thus considering different cultivated potato species as one crop unit (potatoes) and different cabbage crops belonging to the same species Brassica oleracea as distinct units. I still use the term “interspecific” diversity to denote this kind of diversity at the crop level, because of its wider use in the literature, the approximate correspondence between crops and crop species, and the already established meaning of the alternative and more precise term “intercrop” as a particular type of cultivation system.

  2. A cantón is an Ecuadorian geographical-administrative unit, roughly corresponding to the size of a United States county. The country is divided into 24 provincias, that altogether encompass 224 cantones.

  3. Based on data series 1980–2010 provided to the author by Instituto Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología.

  4. During recent years, however, this general pattern has begun to be modified, as climatic changes have prompted farmers to expand maize cultivation to the upper agricultural zone (Skarbø and VanderMolen 2015).

  5. While analysis of households’ changes over time in diversity in relation to variation in household level characteristics might yield interesting insights, the present study’s sample size limits the applicability of this approach. For a detailed cross-sectional analysis of how household level factors relate to crop diversity measures in a larger farm sample in the same study area, please refer to Skarbø (2014).

  6. For names in Kichwa, Spanish and Latin of the crops mentioned in the text of the article, please refer to Tables 5, 6 and 7.

  7. Grano is a term frequently used for traditional, locally grown field crops in Cotacachi.

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Acknowledgments

I thank the many farmers in Cotacachi generously sharing their time and experiences during the research. I am also grateful for research assistance from Rosa Ramos, and institutional support from the Unión de organizaciones campesinas e indígenas de Cotacachi, the University of Georgia, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. In particular I thank Cary Fowler, Virginia D. Nazarea, and Bram Tucker for research guidance and input, and Ola Westengen, Trygve Berg, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier drafts. This work was supported financially by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, an Andrew E. and G. Norman Wigeland Fellowship Fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Association, and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0921859. All errors remain those of the author.

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  1. Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432, Ås, Norway

    Kristine Skarbø

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The research was carried out in compliance with the principles of ethical conduct in the Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiology (http://ethnobiology.net/code-of-ethics/). To ensure compliance with local ethical standards, project aims, design and implementation was discussed and agreed upon with relevant local authorities, including community leaders and leadership in the municipal administration of Cotacachi cantón and the Unión de Organizaciones Campesinas e Indígenas de Cotacachi.

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Skarbø, K. Multiple trends in interspecific crop diversity: a longitudinal case study from the Ecuadorian Andes. Genet Resour Crop Evol 63, 1319–1343 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-015-0320-9

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