The program aimed at the promotion of food security and local development through the redemption of the Andean GRAINS, in order to build a public, participatory and inclusive policy preserving and enhancing biodiversity. The experience recovered forgotten crops and techniques and integrated them with modern agro-ecological knowledge. Such combination gave sustainable economic opportunities to indigenous small scale producers, expecially women, and enhanced food security and food sovereignity through the promotion of local multicultural identity. Such recognition of food sovereignty, accomplished through respect of biodiversity and through the essential role of small producers, has resulted into concrete outcomes such as new markets for small holder organic farmers, dedicated fairs which resulted in an increased income (>22%) for 800 families

The main innovation of the experience consists in recovering lost and forgotten ancestral crops, related techniques and recipes, integrating them with modern agronomic practices and modern recipes. Indigenous communities have rediscovered their traditional knowledge, as part of their social & historical identity, increasing their self-esteem. They have been trained to organically produce and harvest crops such as Amaranth, which gained place in the local markets and tables after more than 500 years of absence. Such crops have high nutritive value and can be sold as seeds or trasformed into flour, adding value, with great profit at the local/national market, improving local diet and enhancing small farmers’ income. The use of self-produced pesticides and fertilizers has increased the savings and the consumption of safe food products.  Moreover, the recovery of these crops also allowed many youngs to remain in their village, thus avoiding migrating to bigger cities or even abroad

The program has been implemented in Cotacachi, a region with 40,036 inhabitants, 80% living in rural areas. 37.3% indigenous. Almost 2/3 of the inhabitants live in poverty, almost half of them lives in extreme poverty (less than 60 USD/person/month).
This is mainly due to the unequal distribution of natural resources, as land and water. Small-scale producers have no access to markets nor to basic services, and lack of legislative and financial government support. Colonization reduced the biodiversity and food sovereignty of the region, by introducing wheat: loss of crop diversification increased the dependence to imported products and a heavy usage of chemical fertilizers, thus enhancing the vulnerability of native peoples toward a progressive poverty.
Moreover, the exploitation of mines is seriously damaging natural resources, setting the scenario for social conflicts and human rights violations, since local communities are opposing to large-scale mining in their territories.

The program increased by 22% the income of 800 small scale producers, who gained increase in their productivity by 30% through technical assistance, training, reducing the use of chemical inputs and introducing dryers, sowing machine and thrashers. Moreover, enabling them to directly access to the market reduced the power of the middlemen and resulted in an increase in their income. The program reintroduced amaranth, which is now produced and consumed at local/national level. Andean grains in Cotacachi are now served in local schools canteen thanks to the creation, by the Local Municipality, of a company for the procurement of foods from small scale producers. As a broader result the program valorized indigenous food, which is now offered by touristic restaurants. Such results have been made possible by a strong commitment by the Cotacachi Municipality which promotes Andean grains usage, production and commercialization as a strategy for territorial development through local identity

Beneficiaries of the program have been 800 families of farmers, mostly women, as well as women rural tourism organisations and art craft small enterprises.
Beneficiary farmers own less than 0.5 ha of land. Traditional farming system generated very low income and caused enviromental problems due to loss of knowledge and inappropriate/eccessive use of chemicals, as well as difficult access to quality productive inputs, low efficiency of manual agriculture system, high cost and low quality.
For this reason many male farmers were obliged to emigrate - temporarily or permanently - while women have been left alone to deal with both farming and family care. In addition, the daily diet of poor communities has depleted both in diversity and quality. The program addressed both issues, and now women are considered keepers of traditions, as custodians of biodiversity. Furthermore, women are producing income for the family, and their self-esteem and empowerment has considerably increased

The program has been carried out in partnership with a communities based organizations, Unorcac (Municipal Indigenous Organization) whose staff is involved in the planning and implementing of field activities. Particularly, local staff include an agronomist who is in charge of field activities, such as improving production techniques and post-harvest processing and related training; one economist with good experience about market dynamics at different levels, as well as on local farming systems and socio-cultural local context; one rural promoter, in charge of relations with associations, producers and communities; and an accountant, who manages the administration, and coordinates procurement’s procedures, as well as the administrative accountability of the project. As to Oxfam’s personnel, there is a senior agronomist who is responsible for the coordination, the planning and supervision of all the activities.

Our action is coherent with the national priorities, being aligned with the food sovereignty via the valorisation of native crops, as stated in the Constitution and in the planning sectorial documents.
Nevertheless, due to the relative low value of andean grains, compared at national level with other crops (banana, cocoa, rice), it has not been possible to get a strong and concrete engagement of the national Level, even if the  INIAP and the  Ministry of Agriculture endorsed the initiative and involved directly Oxfam in the organization of the International Congress on Quinua (Ibarra, 2014)

Our strategy focused on political incidence at local and subnational level, wide partnership and alliances, not only with the Municipalities, but also establishing a relation with the Provincial level  and with the decentralized Offices of the Ministry of Agriculture, that created the enabling conditions for sustainability and replicability, and above all the the scaling up to the national level
 

The program has reduced the usage of chemical inputs, by promoting the self-production of fertilizers and bio insecticides. It also decreased the impact of pests and diseases thanks to the promotion of more integrated farming systems (intercropping, adequate rotation etc.) The program also promoted more agro-bio diverse farming systems, and increased the biodiversity in the rural and peri-urban area of Cotacachi; this resulted in the reduction of the risks of losing the annual crops, due to causes related to climate change as the Andean grains demonstrated greater resilience to drought in comparison with other crops.
Finally, in order to provide sustainability, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Oxfam and the Municipality of Cotacachi on the environmental management, agricultural biodiversity management and citizens’ awareness raising

After other Municipalities analysed the experience of Cotacachi, they requested Oxfam collaboration for its replication. Particularly the Imbabura Provincial Government is designing an Ordinance based on Oxfam experience, that will be scaled up to a subnational level.
Other Provinces have already shown their interest in testing a similar program, and asked for exchanging the experience. Many are the elements which make this experience transferable in a broader national context: the strong interest of local authorities; the similarity of the cultural, institutional, political and agro-ecological context of Cotacachi to many other Andean Municipalities; the good level of demand on local, national and international markets, and the related interest of the private sector in producing, processing and marketing the products.  All introduced changes are respectful of local culture and traditions, and do not require high investment, making them accessible to small scale producers.

The experience has been disseminated both at national and international level, with many means and actions: a public campaign, named “Cotacachi for food sovereignty”, led by the Municipality; the introduction in the development Plan of the Municipality of a Local marketing plan for typical products; the organisation by producers of 15 national events for agro-biodiversity and food sovereignty; the national fair for seed exchange, organized at a local level, which has now been institutionalized and assumed a national level; six tours of exchange of experience with other six Provinces.
The new Local Committee for Agricultural Investigation, composed by small scale producers, agronomist and schools which has been settled in Cotacachi, is nowadays producing and spreading Andean grains seeds, and it is identifying and disseminating improved techniques.