Agricultura bajo contrato en Ecuador, 1995-2016.Una aproximación desde la Economía Política Agraria

Abstract

This thesis deals with the analysis of the factors that explain that in recent decades in Ecuador there has been a great boost to contract farming, in the period 1995-2016. Thus, the general objective of this research is to deepen the analysis of the growth of contract farming in Ecuador, for the period 1995-2016, from a structural and systemic vision, more particularly from the current of Agrarian Political Economy. The research hypotheses in this thesis are raised within the framework of the corporate agro-food regime and there are three. Each of them is related to each of the determinants of the growth of contract farming in the territories, specifically: the role of large agribusiness corporations, social classes in agriculture, States and public policies. The research methodology is based on interpretive comparative case studies. The field work has been carried out in two different cases: first, in the Orito Unión Carchense Banana Agro-artisanal Association—in the Costa region—and, second, in the Fe por la Leche 19 de Noviembre Producers Association—in the Sierra region. through forty-five semi-structured interviews...