The National Instructions for Agroecological Production, prepared by the Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control (Agrocalidad), was reviewed by our office in Ecuador. The initiative aims to strengthen sustainable production models. In recent months Rimisp signed an agreement with this state entity to facilitate the adoption of strategies and implementation of common actions to strengthen sustainable production models, as part of the actions carried out in the project. Sowing development. Smallholder agriculture and food resilient to COVID-19. .

We spoke with Rommel Betancourt, Agrocalidad’s General Coordinator of Food Safety, about the construction process of this document.

What is the objective of the National Agroecological Production Instructions?

For us at Agrocalidad it is a pleasure and an obligation to work together with all production systems, and in this case with the agroecological one. We want to be the strategic partner of the productive sector, of all the production models that currently exist in Ecuador.

The objective of this initiative is to generate both a voluntary recognition mechanism, so that the different processes of the agroecological production system can be made visible in an official way, at the national level. And also a registry, which will help us to create tools that can be used by the development authorities and the national agrarian authority to implement public policies that promote development. For this we need to know where they are, how many they are, how they work, what they do. This is one of the first goals, to make visible and recognize that the Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are a valid social certification system capable of generating credibility in agroecology production, through clear guidelines, but always respecting their production models.

On the other hand, standardizing the principles of agroecological production makes it possible to be a differentiator in the market. Of course, they must be standardized together with the actors. We see that the Instructions will be a differentiator, which makes visible and recognizes agroecological production systems, establishing minimum requirements and procedures, through a process that has been born from within, from the producers themselves and respecting each PGS.

The idea is to establish a basic system of clear rules for national recognition through a system of monitoring and promotion of agroecological production, with differentiating tools for generating development.

How has the process of constructing the Instructions been? Where are you in the roadmap?

We started the approach to the stakeholders in 2014, through a consultancy specialized in PGSs that had been developed in Bolivia, we took advantage of all the experiences of this consultancy and prepared a proposal of instructions that we socialized in seven meetings, taking advantage of the fact that at that time we had a new regional political map, we held a meeting for each region. That was a good moment to get to know each other among the different actors. In 2015 we had the proposal of the document ready, it took us all that time to elaborate it, because we had to locate the diversity of producers, associations, etc. If we had had a registry, which is what we propose in the Instructions, a Basic Registry, it would have been much easier to build this initiative.

In 2017 we made an experience of taking food samples in agroecological markets and we were surprised to find that several of these products did not meet the standards of agroecological production. The contamination levels in some samples were not even suitable to be considered conventional food. Faced with this we resumed the actions to maintain the proposal of the Instructive and began with a series of workshops to socialize the draft document, to collect the observations of the different actors and to carry it out completely we took the years 2018 and 2019.

In 2020 we already had a proposal with the recommendations of different public and private actors, academia, NGOs and obviously the collective of agroecological producers. After the pause caused by the pandemic, in 2021 we resumed the work of socialization of the instructions collected in previous years. At that time, we were approached by several producers who expressed interest in the proposals of the Instructions. For 2022, we have had very important approaches with other countries, especially we must consider that Ecuador is a member country of the Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture and since 2016 we are chairing it. We spoke with countries that have mature levels of progress with agroecological producer clusters, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico and Chile, and we exchanged experiences.

There we had the approach with Rimisp, to continue working. Currently, we maintain the initiative together with the Subsecretaría de la Agricultura Familiar Campesina and with the authorities of the Ministry of Agriculture, to articulate activities of promotion and development.

We have a fairly mature draft proposal, and although nothing is set in stone, especially in production processes, since they are very dynamic, but we have a fairly mature document and we are looking for the right time to talk to all the stakeholders who wish to be part of the initiative, always emphasizing that it is a voluntary process.

What are the advantages of the Instructive?

In due course, we can provide this record of information as a tool to the development authorities, so that they can implement public policies to encourage the agroecological system.

We will contribute to strengthening the agro-productive system by generating consumer confidence, contributing to the recognition of these existing agro-ecological seals. On the consumers’ side, we will help them to identify them and the marketing channels will allow these products to enter their markets, as they are guaranteed foodstuffs and thus avoid food fraud.

This promotion to the good producers of agroecology will allow them to have a differentiated value that consumers are willing to support. Contribute to the strengthening and creation of local networks, although we are not the commercial entity, but with the support to these social networks, from our angle it is possible to influence the development of the producer as the first link in the chain and being participants in the achievement of healthy, nutritious and safe food.

What has been Rimisp’s role in this process?

Your role has been fundamental. It is important to have all kinds of approaches and links with other instances and organizations of all levels and types, since in some way this third presence, this other vision enriches us with your contributions. And in this case, we are grateful for the presence of Rimisp, for the accompaniment that they have given us and rather, it is a wish that we can continue to count on you to move forward with this process.