Coupling Agroecology and PAR to Identify Appropriate Food Security and Sovereignty Strategies in Indigenous Communities

Abstract

This article discusses the potential of coupling participatory action research (PAR) with agroecological principles to address food insecurity in indigenous communities. It argues that combining these two approaches can lead to culturally and environmentally appropriate, context-oriented strategies to empower community members and strengthen community food sovereignty and food security. This article draws on a recent study of Mayan communities in the Yucatán State, Mexico, and demonstrates the strengths of an agroecologically focused PAR approach in addressing local challenges faced by rural communities in their struggle to become food sovereign and secure, but its weakness when it comes to influencing policy overarching structures threatening community food sovereignty.

Assessing Diet Quality of Indigenous Food Systems in Three Geographically Distinct Solomon Islands Sites (Melanesia, Pacific Islands)

“…Indigenous knowledge can help build local food system resilience, strengthen food and nutrition security, and help to inform the global debate on improving the sustainability of global food systems [ 52 ]. Studies have identified that agroecological approaches informed by participatory research and indigenous knowledge can help empower communities and increase food sovereignty [ 53 ]. Neglected and underutilized agri-food species also have the potential to generate income for farmers, meet demand in local markets, and contribute to meeting UN sustainability goals [ 1 ].…”

Integrating Agroecology and Participatory Action Research (PAR): Lessons from Central America

“…In Southern Spain, researchers associated with the agroecology graduate program at the International University of Andalucía (UNIA), the University of Córdoba (UCO), and the Pablo de Olavide University (UPO), have carried out long-term PAR and agroecology-oriented processes with a variety of farmers [19,27], focusing on issues of ecological production, certification and markets. The Community Agroecology Network (CAN) has collaborated on PAR processes with Santa Clara University and the University of Chapingo, oriented towards food security and sovereignty with coffee farmers in northern Nicaragua [28,29] and Mexico [30], respectively. In Malawi, a collaborative including African, U.S. and Canadian universities and non-government organizations has used the PAR approach to assess agroecological management as a contribution to rural households affected by HIV/AIDs [31,32].…”

Sustainable Food Systems

“…Agroecology is itself an alternative way of learning, an educational approach less elitist and pontificating, more akin to citizen science and action research and open to Foucault's ideas about critiquing power relations in the production of knowledge (Bell, M., 2011). It therefore naturally fits with those participatory research methodologies which draw on the work of Paulo Freire (Puttnam, et al, 2014). In all these ways, food initiatives contribute to the quest for a new order in which society and nature explore common principles of self-organisation.…”