Like many Latin American countries, Ecuador responded to COVID-19 by restricting trade and travel, a decision that disrupted the prevailing model of regional trade integration. Among some analysts, observations have been made that the lockdown represents a new opportunity to revitalize rural livelihoods and smallholder agriculture. This paper evaluates these claims by exploring the impact of COVID-19 on household food security and smallholder food production in Chimborazo, a highland province that is known for extremely high rates of poverty and the highest concentration of Kichwa-speaking Indigenous people in Ecuador. Drawing upon original empirical research, it makes the case that the prospects for revitalizing smallholder production remain structurally constrained by a legacy of land inequality and failed agrarian reform. According to our findings, the only sectors that thrived during the lockdown were ones that served local markets. For those requiring significant shipping and storage, merchants and traders were able to drive down farmgate prices, squeezing local producers. At the same time, new government legislation made it easier for employers to terminate wage labourers, undermining a vital source of income and employment for low-income households. Far from revitalizing smallholder agriculture, the pandemic appears to have further entrenched an economic model of supporting agribusiness at the expense of family farms and migrant labour.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 时代的土地和生计：对厄瓜多尔本土粮食生产者的影响


与许多拉丁美洲国家一样，厄瓜多尔通过限制贸易和旅行来应对 COVID-19，这一决定扰乱了区域贸易一体化的普遍模式。一些分析人士认为，封锁是振兴农村生计和小农农业的新机遇。本文通过探讨 COVID-19 对钦博拉索家庭粮食安全和小农粮食生产的影响来评估这些说法。钦博拉索是一个高原省份，以贫困率极高和厄瓜多尔基丘瓦语原住民最集中而闻名。根据最初的实证研究，它证明振兴小农生产的前景仍然受到土地不平等和失败的土地改革遗留问题的结构性限制。根据我们的调查结果，在封锁期间唯一蓬勃发展的行业是服务于当地市场的行业。对于那些需要大量运输和储存的产品，商人和贸易商能够压低农场交货价格，从而挤压当地生产商。与此同时，新的政府立法使雇主更容易解雇雇佣工人，从而破坏了低收入家庭的重要收入和就业来源。疫情非但没有振兴小农农业，反而进一步巩固了以牺牲家庭农场和农民工为代价支持农业综合企业的经济模式。