In situ conservation of the common bean in highland Ecuador (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Many recognize the importance of conserving crop plant biodiversity, specifically of landraces, in situ. Green Revolution technologies and policies designed to increase modern crop adoption are generally associated with genetic erosion. On the other hand, landrace conservation is associated with traditional/indigenous farmers and farming regimes. However, farmers rarely conform to such simple categorization, e.g., purely modern or purely traditional. Specifically, researchers have done little to explicitly recognize the political and economic factors influencing farmers, decisions to grow or abandon landraces. The following study uses analyses of political economic and ethnographic data related to four specific topics—labor, agricultural technology, capital, and the end uses of crops—to elucidate the socioeconomic dimensions of landrace conservation for Phaseolus varieties in the region of Vilcabamba, Ecuador.; Agrarian reform and agricultural extension projects have thus far worked to diminish levels of Phaseolus landrace diversity. Land tenure situations among farmers in Vilcabamba have changed over the last three decades, leading farmers to organize their farming activities in new ways. Cultivation of modern Phaseolus varieties is associated with high rent lands and market production. On the other hand, farmers associated with communal land institutions and subsistence production have not abandoned landrace varieties as extensively. Extension programs, including the establishment of a commercial bean seed production cooperative, have generally led to a decrease in Phaseolus landrace cultivation. The use of modern agricultural technologies is closely associated with the cultivation of modern varieties. While landraces are valued for culinary and nutritional characteristics and are adapted to a wider range of ecological conditions than modern varieties, socioeconomic factors perpetuated through land reform and agricultural extension discourage their cultivation. Merging extension activities with participatory research approaches may help ameliorate genetic erosion in centers of bean diversity.