Organizations and intensifications: Campesino federations, rural livelihoods and agricultural technology in the Andes and Amazonia

doi:10.1016/0305-750X(96)00028-9

World Development

Volume 24, Issue 7, July 1996, Pages 1161-1177

https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(96)00028-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper analyzes several experiences from Bolivia and Ecuador of how campesino and indigenous federations engage in agricultural development and natural resource management activities. It is argued that the federations may have especially important roles to play in agricultural and livelihood intensification. Although not traditional roles for many federations, these activities have become increasingly important components of their wider development and sociopolitical strategies. Three different trajectories through which federations have arrived at work with technology are identified, and three natural resources related roles played by the federations are outlined: as deliverer of technology services; as rural social enterprise; and as natural resources rights group. The paper also suggests that experience shows that these organizations could play an integral role in interinstitutional approaches to agricultural development and rural intensification.

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^∗: This paper is based on several bodies of collaborative research: an ODA-funded component of a wider ODIISNAR study of farmer organizations and agricultural research in Bolivia; two Inter-American Foundation supported studies of indigenous federations and indigenous agriculture in Ecuador; and work for Fundagro-Ecuador. The studies stretch over several years, from 1988 through to 1995. While I am responsible for the argument of the paper, a number of these different pieces of work were conducted in collaboration with others, in particular Teresa Domingo, Adalberto Kopp, Javier Quisbert, Galo Ramón, Jorge Trujillo, Hernan Carrasco, Lourdes Peralvó, Victor-Hugo Torres, German Trujillo, Deborah Merrill-Sands, John Farrington and Diana Carney. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the World Bank workshop on “Traditional and Modern Approaches to Natural Resource Management in Latin America,” World Bank, Washington, DC, April 25–26, 1995. I am grateful for the support of the International Institute for Environment and Development where I worked while writing this paper. I am also grateful for the comments of the participants at that workshop, as well as those of the referees, Tom Carroll, Jorge Uquillas, Denise Bebbington and Diana Carney.

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Organizations and intensifications: Campesino federations, rural livelihoods and agricultural technology in the Andes and Amazonia

Abstract

World Development

World Development

The Zimbabwe Farmers' Union: its current and potential role in technology development and transfer

Institutionalising farmer participation in adaptive technology testing

Modernisation from below: An alternative indigenous development?

Economic Geography

NGOs and the State in Latin America: Rethinking Roles in Sustainable Agricultural Development

Technology and rural development strategies in a base economic organization: El Ceibo federation of agricultural cooperatives

Small Farmer Federations in Bolivia: Case Studies of their Roles in Developing and Transferring Agricultural Technologies

Fragile lands, fragile organisations: Indian organisations and the politics of sustainability in Ecuador

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

The Malian Union of Cotton and Food Crop Producers: Its Current and Potential Role in Technology Development and Transfer

Cultural ecology

Intermediary NGOs: The Supporting Link in Grassroots Development

On building a partnership in Mali between farmers and researchers

Investment strategies to combat rural poverty: A proposal for Latin America

Local Organizations: Intermediaries in Rural Development

Identity: The hidden side of new social movements in Latin America