| Ecuador is the world's largest banana exporter. On the Ecuadorian Coast, an important part of the population lives as limited-resource farmers or as a large class of landless rural plantation workers. Much agriculture in Ecuador depends heavily on hand labor. However, many people are migrating away from the country, due to economic crises and other factors.; This study presents an assessment of the current situation in a selected agrosocioecosystem, by studying its principal components, their resilience, and what economic output they provide. The study also assesses the benefits of remaining a small farmer, as an alternative to migration. There are a limited number of livelihood options in the study area. People can be small-scale farmers; can be town-dwelling, can be salaried plantation workers; can live and work on plantations; or can migrate. This lack of opportunity creates an unstable social situation. Four components or subsystems were studied: commercial banana plantations; town-dwelling plantation workers; small-scale farmers; and nature reserves.; Analysis was undertaken using Ethnographic Linear Programming (ELP), which uses qualitative and quantitative data to estimate systems outcomes under several scenarios. Elicited data were used to construct models. Households were subjected to sudden shocks, and those able to best respond were said to possess higher socioeconomic resilience.; The study found that small-scale farmers are more socioeconomically resilient to shocks than are town-dwelling plantation workers. Transferring households from the town labor supply to small-scale farms improves economic output and adds resilience to the system. A rural survey of workers revealed that small farms are perceived as the safest, most food-secure place to live. In contrast, the sample population perceived schools and clinics to be more accessible in towns. The study concluded that a nature reserve could add more socioeconomic resilience to the agrosocioecosystem if it were used as a center for creating and disseminating knowledge among local resource-limited farmers. |
