Learning from Carchi

Learning from Carchi Agricultural Modernisation and the Production of Decline Stephen G. Sherwood Promotoren: Prof. Dr. Ir. Niels G. Röling Emeritus hoogleraar Landbouwkennissystemen in ontwikkelingslanden Wageningen Universiteit Prof. Dr. Ir. Cees Leeuwis Hoogleraar Communicatie en Innovatie Studies Wageningen Universiteit Co-promotor: Dr. Donald C. Cole Associate Professor Dalla Lana School of Public Health University of Toronto, Canada Promotiecommissie: Prof. Dr. Ir. Paul C. Struik Wageningen Universiteit Prof. Dr. Ir. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg Wageningen Universiteit Prof. Dr. Ir. Arnold van Huis Wageningen Universiteit Prof. Dr. Hermann Waibel University of Hannover, Duitsland Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd binnen de onderzoekschool: CERES Graduate Research School for Resource Studies for Development Learning from Carchi: Agricultural Modernisation and the Production of Decline Stephen G. Sherwood Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor op gezag van de rector magnificus van Wageninngen Universiteit Prof. dr. M.J. Kropff in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 8 juni 2009 des namiddags te vier uur in de Aula Sherwood, Stephen G. (2009) Learning from Carchi: Agricultural Modernisation and the Production of Decline With summaries in English, Spanish, and Dutch ISBN 978-90-8585-316-9 To Irene, Myriam, and the people of Carchi Acknowledgements I dedicate this dissertation to Irene, Myriam, and the people of Carchi. While I am grateful for the support of all of my family, my stepmother Irene Newman Sherwood, who fell ill to Lupus a number of years ago, deserves special recognition. There is no doubt that without her love and support during a difficult period of my childhood, my life would be substantially different than the one I enjoy today. Myriam Paredes, my wife, who was working on a dissertation of her own, showed great patience with me as I struggled to find time for writing under the weight of work and endless travel. I look forward to recovering the lost time in our post-dissertation life together, in particular with our recently born daughter – the lovely Nina Micaela. Countless people in Carchi contributed to this research, in particular the people of San Francisco de Libertad, Santa Martha de Cuba, San Pedro de Piartal, and Mariscal Sucre. Their families and they are the ones who most suffer the consequences of modern agriculture, especially chronic exposure to highly toxic pesticides. If our work over the years has contributed to their well-being, the effort was worthwhile. I give special thanks to Juan Carlos Landázuri for allowing Myriam and I (as well as our research team) to use his farm as a base of operations and for making that time so much more rewarding. I also am grateful for the support of the many friends and colleagues at the Carchi Consortium, particularly Susan Poats and Mauricio Proaño at Randi Randi as well as the people at EcoPar and Jatun Sacha. Despite their busy schedules, my promoters, Niels Röling, Cees Leeuwis and Donald Cole, were generous with their time, wisdom, and insight. I enjoyed inspiring discussions with Niels, who continually exposed me to new ideas and challenged me to think more deeply, if not spiritually, about my work as well as the deeper purposes of development. Cees helped me to think more dispassionately about my observations, and his well-chosen criticisms enabled me to be more rigorous with my social inquiry and see things in new light. Donald and I have worked together for over a decade, so we have had ample opportunity to spend time together in Ecuador. In addition to learning to view development from a health perspective, I have benefited from Donald’s tremendous empathy towards others, his work ethic, and enthusiasm towards life. The tremendous foresight and patience of my promoters allowed me to learn at my own pace and successfully navigate my experience to arrive at this dissertation. I am eternally grateful and indebted to each. I enjoyed the four years that I spent at the International Potato Center (CIP) and especially interactions with my colleagues at the Quito research station: Charles Crissman, Greg Forbes, Graham Thiele, Patricio Espinosa, Walter Bowen, and David Yanggen. I wish to thank the EcoSalud team in Carchi, particularly Jovanny Suquillo, Luis Escudero, Fernando Chamorro, Lilian Basantes, and Mariana Pérez, as well as colleagues from INIAP’s Santa Catalina Research Station. I have benefited from years of interaction with the National Program on Andean Roots and Tubers and especially the years of collaboration with Manuel Pumisacho. I wish to thank the many international scientists who contributed to different aspects of the research reported here, in particular John Antle at Montana State University and Jetse Stoorvogel at Wageningen as well as Peter Berti and Julia Krasevek at Path-Canada (now HealthBridge). I also enjoyed time spent with the many students who conducted research with us in Carchi, especially Martijn Veen, Pim Kantebeen, Sarian Koosten, Raul Jaramillo, Henry An, and Marc Schut. Myriam and I greatly appreciated the support of our research team in Carchi, composed of Guiomar Bastidas, Byron Fonseca, Luis Gonzales, and Ross Mary Borja. Makiko Taguchi, Kevin Gallagher, Marjon Fredrix, Peter Kenmore and others at the FAO’s Global IPM Facility (GIF) and the Ecuador Country Office helped introduce Farmer Field Schools in Ecuador and the rest of the Andes. I greatly appreciated the generous contributions and insights of Harry van der Wulp and Janice Jiggins over pesticide policy, markets, and other matters. I wish to thank my colleagues at World Neighbors, in particular Steve Brescia, Peter Gubbels, Julio Beingolea, Janet Pavon, Ross Borja, Pedro Oyarzun, and Wilma Llumiquinga. They provided endless encouragement and helped me carve out time from work for writing. Without their support and goodwill, I would not have been able to complete this ambitious project. I greatly benefited from my conversations with members of the Communication and Innovation Studies Group and especially the Social Learning Group at Wageningen. In particular, I am grateful to Rhiannon Pyburn, Irene Guijt, Greg Leach, and Edith van Walsum. Mirjam Cevat, Maarit Junnikkala, and Joke Janssen always were helpful and made me feel welcomed during my stays at Wageningen. I’d like to thank Connie Almekinders for her enthusiasm and generosity in support of students and learning at the university. Finally, I am grateful for my many good friends in Ecuador, especially Kaia, David, Free, Orazio, and Chris, among others. Over the years they enabled me to survive the heavy demands of combined work and research by dragging me out, often against my will, to a football match, a mountain, the coast, or a bar in Quito for conversation and laughter, all of which continually reminded me not to take myself too seriously. A number of organisations provided financial support for this research. The studies reported in Chapter 2 took place between 1990 and 2003 and were originally financed by the Rockefeller Foundation. Subsequent investigations were conducted with support from the USAID Soil Management and IPM Collaborative Research Support Programs as well as the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, the Ecosystem Health Program of Canada’s International Development Research Centre, and the Dutch Fund for Eco-Regional Research. The research reported in Chapters 3, 4, and 7 took place between 2003 and 2008 and was financed by a CEPIP-W/CERES grant. Tina Cosentino, Emma Kirwan, and Vance Russell were generous in commenting on earlier versions of different chapters, and Tom Edwards and Shannon Underhill ably edited the volume. Ximena Medina and José Jimenez kindly contributed graphic support and layout. Surviving errors or mistakes are mine. Table of Contents Acknowledgements vi Figures x Tables xi Boxes xii Acronyms xiii Glossary of Kichwa and Spanish terminology xv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Uncanny timing: a prelude 3 Arrival in Carchi: discovering the challenges of abundance 5 A PhD project 7 The dissertation 8 Outline 18 Chapter 2 Modern Potato Production in Carchi 21 Summary 21 Geography, climate, and landscape 21 Modern potato production 25 Environmental and health costs of modern agriculture 35 Integrated tradeoffs analysis: in search of “win-win” 43 scenarios Conclusions 46 Chapter 3 History of Agrarian Development in Carchi: Spanish 47 Arrival, Hacienda System, and Agrarian Reform Introduction 47 Pre-Colombian Carchi 47 Spanish settlement and the encomienda 53 Hacienda system 56 Agrarian reform 61 Conclusions 68 Chapter 4 Agricultural Modernisation in Four Communities 71 Introduction 71 “Constructive justice” of agrarian reform 72 Arrival of technical assistance 75 Carchi: model of modern agriculture 77 Agrarian development in four villages 78 Discussion 117 Conclusions 125 Chapter 5 Cultural Encounters: Learning from Cross-disciplinary 127 Science and Development Practice Summary 127 Introduction 127 Setting the scene: EcoSalud 128 Moments of divergence 130 Discussion 139 Conclusions 146 Chapter 6 Farmer Field Schools in the Social Wild: Exploring the 147 Limits of Methodology-Based Interventions Summary 147 Introduction 147 Conceptual matters 148 Farmer Field Schools as a locus for radical change 152 FFS in Carchi 155 Learning from FFS in the social wild 172 Conclusions 184 Chapter 7 Dynamics of Perpetuation: The Politics of Keeping Highly 187 Toxic Pesticides on the Market Summary 187 Introduction 187 Critical events 191 Truth and consequences 197 Rise

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