THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION IN QUIMIAG, ECUADOR: A CASE STUDY OF SMALL-FARMER PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN THE HIGHLAND ANDE

The ethnoagricultural study reported here examines the influence of social organization on small-scale farming systems in the central highland Andes. As part of a larger interdisciplinary farming systems research project in Quimiag, Ecuador, it stresses the importance of understanding the social as well as the physical environment of small farm production in order to carry out successful farming systems research.;Resources basic to Quimiag farming systems--land and water, capital, and labor--are examined in terms of the differential effects of regional, community and household level social organization on the use and allocation of these resources.;The study identifies the concurrent and frequently crosscutting effects of the rapidly changing rural class structure, ethnic composition and family organization on the farm production systems. Particular attention is paid to the impact on the farm unit of competing "traditional" and modern social institutions attempting to regulate the same key resources simultaneously.;Major principles governing the use of land, water, and labor in a tropical mountainous environment are identified, as are the farm-management strategies and socio-economic structures developed to accommodate subsistence farms when these principles are violated. Emphasis is placed on the variety of adaptive responses that farmers have available to confront their extremely complex physical and social environment, and the effect of these strategies on the use of technology.;The study also analyzes the nature of the several farming systems found in Quimiag, their interrelationships, and how they fit within and are formed by the encompassing social order. The implications for general farming systems research, based on the understanding of Quimiag farming systems, are then discussed.