Using the Main Agroecological Structure (MAS) indicator for evaluating the agroecological status of farms along the ecuadorian northern-central Andean region

Agribusiness has influenced national and international policies of privatization of resources and free trade, subsidies and monetary restrictions, limiting the participation of peasants in agricultural trade. This has provoked acute marginalization and impoverishment, bringing along violent conflicts over land, forced migrations and dispossession of their rights to well-being and security, to produce their own food and live under their own ways. Additionally, GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions related to large scale food production reach to 21-37% of total anthropogenic emissions, of which 14-28% correspond to agriculture and land use and 5-10% to non-crop emissions (transport and marketing). Therefore, it becomes necessary to urge a shift in the current production-consumption-distribution food paradigm. Agroecology has been considered as the most prominent alternative for facing social, economical, and environmental asymmetries, as it can provide a balanced environment, sustained yield and soil fertility, and natural pest control, through the design of diversified agroecosystems and the use of self-sustaining technologies. At the same time, it aims to the co-creation of knowledge by combining science with the traditional, practical and local knowledge of producers, enhancing autonomy and adaptive capacity. However, in Ecuador, the scaling of these practices faces severe challenges such as lack of governmental support, weak regulatory policies and producers limited access to commercial spaces. This discourages producers to shift from conventional to agroecological practices, and threatens those who have already started the process. The transition of complex systems ─like an agroecological farm─ depends on its resilience. This resilience will set a lower or higher chance that, given a perturbation, the system remains steady or it shifts into an alternative state. Then, the application of an indicator of agroecological transition becomes crucial to keep high levels of resilience in the system, allowing it to sustain its functions (productivity, ecosystem services) in time. This study project intends to evaluate the robustness of agroecological transition in farms of the central-northern Ecuadorian Andean region, using the Main Agroecological Structure (MAS) framework. The methodology enables researchers and local communities to build collective knowledge about the state of an agroecological farm, highlighting key aspects such as strategic practices, local biodiversity, land management and cultural use of land. Through this, the study intends to provide a well-defined, collaborative methodology for evaluating agroecological farms, and support decision making processes which might enhance its sustainability in time.