The modernization of agricultural practices has been widespread in South America since the 1970s. The main practices implemented included the use of fertilizers and phytosanitary control based on synthetic elements, and agricultural mechanization for plowing. These activities affect soil quality and make soils more dependent on fertilizer imports throughout the continent. At the same time, the intensification of agricultural activity also increased CO 2 emissions in South America from less than 150 thousand gigagrams in 1977 to more than 280 thousand gigagrams in 2017, which translates into a greater burden of agriculture on the environment. Ecuador is one of the South American countries that share several social, climatic, and topographic characteristics common in the region; therefore, it is interesting to study the factors that help mitigate soil erosion processes resulting from agricultural activity.For this purpose, this study performs the estimation of a Tobit model with the information of the agricultural units with seasonal crops present in the Continuous Agricultural Surface and Production Survey of 2018. For the model approach, the number of soil conservation practices (SCP) in each farm is considered as the dependent variable. The estimation results show that there is a positive relationship between farms that are managed by women and the number of SCP implemented: the same result was obtained with respect to agricultural investment by local governments. However, it was found that farms with government technical assistance implemented fewer SCPs, which opens the debate on the importance of soil conservation in public policy.

La presente investigación indaga sobre las consecuencias de implementar programas gubernamentales enfocados exclusivamente al incremento de la productividad agrícola mediante el uso de insumos químicos y semillas mejoradas – práctica propia a la llamada Revolución Verde. Así, se toma como caso de estudio al Plan Semillas de Alto Rendimiento (PSAR) con sus dos cultivos objetivo, a saber, el maíz duro y el arroz, durante los años 2014 y 2016, y se utiliza métodos econométricos, insumidos con información estadística provista por la Encuesta de Superficie y Producción Agropecuaria Continua (ESPAC), para proporcionar evidencia empírica que permita extender el debate sobre los efectos de la política pública ecuatoriana pro-productividad agrícola más allá del simple aumento de las toneladas producidas por hectárea. El énfasis es, por un lado, en la disyuntiva productividad-exclusión al considerar al PSAR como parte de un proceso de concentración indirecta de la tierra (Yumbla y Herrera, 2013) y, por otro lado, en la disyuntiva productividad-diversidad al considerar al PSAR como un potencial riesgo para la biodiversidad y, por tanto, para la soberanía alimentaria (Sarandón, 2002). Los resultados muestran no solo que el uso de insumos químicos y variedades mejoradas no garantiza el incremento la productividad agrícola sino también que el planteamiento unidimensional del objetivo de aumentar la producción por hectárea sembrada tiene secuelas en factores como: biodiversidad, concentración de la tierra, asociatividad y rol de la mujer.

PurposeThe objective of this study was to examine the impact of the pandemic on sustainable agricultural practices (SAP) adoption such as: organic fertilizers, minimal use of tillage, crop rotation, soil burning and crop association in the frame of family farming systems in Ecuador.Design/methodology/approachThe present research employed probit models' estimation with pooled data from 2018 to 2020. The study combined three sources of information with The Survey on Surface and Agricultural Continuous Production, as the main. This study also proposed the analysis of six regions: Coast, Coast Mountains, Northern Highlands, Central Highlands, Southern Highlands and the Amazon.FindingsThe authors see a lower adoption in the year 2020, where the pandemic was one of the causes. The only exception was the use of organic fertilizer. The adoption of these sustainable practices differed across the six regions. The findings also reveal that the employment generated by agricultural enterprises had a negative influence on the adoption of three sustainable practices, and that for the remaining practices the effect was positive.Research limitations/implicationsThe data set lacks information on the acceptance and the application of the practices promoted by agricultural technical assistance, which could provide insights into the effectiveness of the learning process. The limited observation period does not allow for investigating long-term effects on sustainable practices adoption.Originality/valueThis study helps to understand the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in the adoption of SAP. Additionally, this research can help with the scalability of the practices starting from the regions that are most likely to adopt each of them.

In Ecuador, since 2017, the representativeness of full employment had been showing a decline among the number of employed persons in rural and urban areas. This structural problem joins a break in economic growth of the country and the region. In this sense, this study aims to highlight the factors that determine access to non-full employment of young people in rural areas. For this, the estimation of a probit model is carried out. The results show the need to establish differentiated policies for access to full employment for rural youth.