In Tungurahua Province, Ecuador
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COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT ON SETTLEMENT AND RFSOURCE SYSTEMS ANALYSIS REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND POTATO MARKETING IN TUNGURAHUA PROVINCE, ECUADOR by Eric S. Belsky University of Massachusetts at Amherst Clark University Institute for Development Anthropology Irternational Development Program 99 Collier Street, Suite 302 950 Main Street P.O. Box 2207 Worcester, MA 01610 Binghamton, NY 13902 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND POTATO MARKETING IN TUNGURAHUA PROVINCE, ECUADOR by Eric S. Belsky University of Massachusetts at Amherst Prepared for U.S. Agency for International Development Washington D.C. 20523 1988 This paper is pviblished by Clark University and reports on work supported by Human Settlement and Natural Resource Systems Analysis (SARSA) Cooperative Agreement No. DAN-1135-A-00-4068-00 at Clark University and the Institute for Development Anthropology, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Develop ment, Bureau for Science and Technology, Division of Rural and Regional Development. The views and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Agency for Internacional Development or to any individual acting cn its behalf. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Table of Content..................................s ...................... i List of Tables...................... ..................................... iv List of Maps... ................. .................................... iv List of Figures.. ............................................................v Preface.......................................................... ......... v I. Introduction ................................. ......... .... ........ 1 Baciground to the Study Region ............ ..................... 1 The Need for a Commodity Marketing Approach....................... 11 T he Research Methodology .................. ..................... 13 Organization of the Report ........................................ 14 Field Work .. .................................................. 15 Notes ....................... ..................................... 16 II. Potato Production and Consumption in Ecuador ........................ 17 Potato Production in Tungurahua .................................. 22 Potato Production and the Potato Produrers ........................ 26 III. The Potato Marketing System in Tungurahua Province ................... 33 The Potato Feri-s .................. ........................... 33 The Potato Marketing System ................... .................... 38 Spatial Marketing Behavior ........................ ................ 54 Conclusions ...................................................... 65 IV. Social Interactions in the Potato Marketing System ................... 68 Rules Governing Buyer-Seller Relations ............................ 68 Resources Mobilized in Marketing ............................... 74 Social Interaction and Marketing Behavior Summarized .............. 81 V. Spatial and Regional Development Implications of Behavioral Patterns in the System ................................. 86 Implications for Spatial Strucuure ............................... 91 Regional Development implicationsi ................................ 91 Notes ............................................................. 97 VI. Policy Conclusions ................................................... 97 The Interregional Trade Network ...................... 97 Pursing Equity Goals ............................................. 98 Production and Marketing ot Potatoes as a Regional Development Strategy ............................................. 102 References ................................................................ 103 - ii - LIST OF TABLES Table Page I-1 Area, Population, and Densities of Cantones in Tungurahua .......... 5 1-2 Population and Change in Cantonal Capitals, Tungurahua ............. 6 1-3 Services in Cantonal Capitals, Tungurahua .......................... 9 1-4 Manufacturing and Commercial Establishments in Cantonal Capitals, Tungurabua ...................................... 10 II-I Potato Harvested Area in Highland Ecuador .......................... 19 11-2 Potato Yield Estimates in Highland Ecuador ......................... 20 11-3 Potato Production in Highland Ecuador .............................. 21 11-4 Per Capita Consumption of Potatoes, by Urbanization and Region ..... 22 11-5 Consumption of Potatoes, by Province of Ecuador .................... 23 11-6 Distribution of Land in Tungurahua Cantones ........................ 28 11-7 Potato Producers and Production in Tungurahua ...................... 30 11-8 Average Income and Income Per Capita in Tungurahua ................. 31 III-1 Market Days and Estimated Weekly Volume of the Five Potato Ferias in Tungurahua............................................... 35 111-2 Estimated Volume of Flows by Market Channel Type ................... 48 111-3 Estimated Flows of Potatoes Circulating in Ambato, Quero, and Pelileo ....................................................... 53 111-4 Spatial Marketing Behavior of Potato Producers ..................... 55 111-5 Producers' Reasons for Marketing Potatoes at More Than One Feria... 57 111-6 Producers' Reasons for Marketing Potatoes in Nearest Feria ......... 58 111-7 Scale of Potato Bulking Activities in Ambato, Quero, and Pelileo... 61 III-8 Scale of Retail Potato Activities in Ambato, Quero, and Pelileo .... 62 111-9 Home Location of Transportistas and Ownership of Incoming Trucks... 66 IV-1 Size of Marketed Lots of Potatoes................................... 73 - iii - IV-2 Number and Percent of Farmers Who Sell Potatoes to Preferred Merchants................................................ 73 IV-3 Number and Percent of Parmers Who Sell Potatoes on Consignment ..... 74 IV-4 Estimated Capital Requirements and Volumes of Potatoes introduced to Ambatc, Pelileo, and Quero by Type of Merchant ................. 84 VI-1 Number a.ad Percent of Farmers Who Prefer to Sell to Consumers ...... 100 - iv - LIST OF MAPS Map Page I-I Political Map of Ecuador............................................ 2 1-2 Tungurahua Province ................................................. 3 1-3 Transportation Linkages in the Ambato Region ....................... 7 1-4 Periodic Market System, Ambato Region .............................. 12 IT-I Costa, Sierra, and Oriente Provinces of Ecuador .................... 18 11-2 Potato Production Areas of Tungurahua .............................. 25 III-I Potato Ferias in the Greater Ambato Pigion ......................... 34 111-2 Estimated Flows of Potatoes Circulating in Ambato, Quero, and Pelileo.........................................................52 -V . LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page III-I Spatial Structure of Plaza Urbina................................ 39 111-2 Potato Market Channel Types in Tungurahua......................... 45 - vi - PREFACE Over the past six years, the Cooperative Agreement on Settlement and Resource Systems Analysis (SARSA) has experimented with approaches for analyz ing the linkages between rural and urban areas. While many methodologies have been developed in the context of U.S.A.I.D. country mission projects, SARSA has also invested small amounts of its core budget in limited applied research projects. This paper reports on one such applied research project conducted in the spring of 1987 in Tungurahua, Ecuador. In the past, SARSA had fielded other teams to Ecuador as part of projects funded jointly by the Ecuador Mission, the Government of Ecuador, and SARSA. These projects focused on the macroprocesses of urbanization in Ecuador and on the central functions provided in periodic markets in the Tungurahua and Cotopaxi provinces. The Spring 1987 project was intended to build on these previous projects by analyzing potato marketing in depth. The goal of the Spring 1987 project was to investigate the behavioral, economic, social, and technical aspects of potato marketing in Tungurahua. The Principal Investigator of SARSA, Dr. Gerald Karaska, initiated this study under the conviction that studies of rural urban linkages, in order to be useful to planning, must focus on the specific exchange linkages most important to income generation in a region. The potato marketing system of Tungurahua, involving movements of goods and people from rural areas to many urban places in complex patterns, fits this notion of a specific exchange linkage. Potatoes in Tungurahua are a major source of regional income and a source of income, both directly and indirectly, for a broad segment of th2 rural and urban populations in Tungurahua. - vii - This report examines the spatial 3tructure of the Tungurahua potato mar keting system and the behaviors and socioeconomic factors that give rise to it. The regional development implications of both spatial structure and dynamic behavior are then explicated. The report is intended both as a substantive empirical study and as an illustration of the utility of analyzing rural urban linkages from a spatial and behavioral perspective. The author wishes to acknowledge Gerald Karaska, Thomas Carroll, and Eric Chetwynd for providing invaluable insights, advice, and support. Capable field assistance was provided by Pamela Spence de Cardenas, the U.S.A.I.D. mission, and by PRONAREC and FONAPRE. Finally, special credit must go to Benjamin Howatt who not only assisted in data collection, but in the design of the field methodology and in the analysis of the results. Chapter I Introduction This report examines the potato marketing system in Tungurahua,