https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7364-7305

dgortaire@utb.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8944-8375

Babahoyo – Ecuador

ycarbo@utb.edu.ec

This study aims to analyze farmers' management skills and their participation in the decision-

making process in their institutions. A total of 130 farmers were surveyed using a

Recibido: 25-10-23 - Aceptado: 18-12-23

Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar las habilidades de gestión de los agricultores y su

participación en el proceso de toma de decisiones en sus instituciones. Se encuestó a 130

agricultores utilizando un cuestionario, centrándose en diferentes variables en las áreas

productivas, sociales y económicas. Se utilizó un análisis descriptivo estadístico para explicar

la principal evidencia. Como resultado, se identificaron habilidades destacadas de los

The participation of farmers is a vital factor for the success of environmental conservation

and rehabilitation because they possess skills, technical knowledge, and organizational

capacity to manage natural resources, which has allowed them to live for millennia (IICA,

2018).

Participation is essential to get the rural population involved in the collection of information

and the planning process. Participatory methods can be used to collect information on the

activities and constraints of male and female farmers. This information can then be shared

with policymakers and planners to formulate development plans that consider the interests

involving individuals in commitment, cooperation, responsibility, and decision-making to

effective process, the result would be a matter of luck. On the other hand, if there is an

adequate process, the quality will improve. By adopting an effective process and training the

people, results can be improved (Grant et al., 2011).

The main hypothesis of this article is to determine whether farmers have adequate

management skills to participate in the decision-making process. This study is divided into

four main chapters: i) the study case introduction containing the conceptual model and

justification, ii) the literature review iii) the methods used for collecting data and analysis,

and, iv) the results, discussion, and conclusions.

FAO (2009), the agricultural producer is the civil or legal person who makes the main

decisions on the use of resources and exercises control over the administration of the

operations of the farm. You have technical and financial responsibilities and can directly

income and in some cases, food depends on the crops that are grown, which is why farmers

usually have to make many decisions regarding their crops and in other cases to the same

producers (FAO, 2017; Sanabria Ramos, 2001).

most distant) (Oteros-Rozas et al., 2019).

Therefore, in the population space, decisions are made, by consensus, on what are the

priorities to be worked on based on the plan. Moreover, the acceleration of development

plans and projects requires adequate economic and financial resources, natural, and

technological, planning, the improvement of the administration, structural reforms (tax,

agrarian), and the conscious and organized participation of the population (Ostrom & Ahn,

2003). The active or passive, positive or negative role that the population plays in the

formulation of plans and projects constitutes an accelerator or a brake. Consequently, without

development (Alarcón Conde & Álvarez Rodríguez, 2020).

and technical resources; however, these may fail due to a lack of decision and the willingness

of the population to put them into practice. Then, it is imperative to i) Interpret social reality,

that the population understands them and makes them their own and that they put them into

practice and, ii) The population is the one that must conceive, execute, and take advantage

written consent. This data was obtained from a study conducted among the agriculture

producers in the whole province of Los Rios. The sample was determined using a

probabilistic simple random sampling. The survey's primary purpose was to investigate

management skills, 136 valid questionnaires were obtained, which were carried out randomly

in 10 different cities of Los Rios.

The questionnaire had questions regarding the main indicators which are:

To analyze the data, we used three different methods for each one of the three core indicators.

Descriptive statistics helped to study the food security indicators using tables, describing the

primary information to explain appropriately the results obtained from collected data in the

field. We constructed an amoeba graph in order to determine the level of social participation

regarding different indexes. We also used colors to identify the risk level according to the

sustainability model proposed by Sepúlveda (2008), where: red = high level, orange = critic

name (Los Rios in Spanish means Rivers). The study collected data in 10 different cities of

the province, where a convenience sample was reached in each one of the cities surveyed,

reaching 78 rural communities, between parishes and precincts, where most small-scale

agricultural producers are; better presented in the following Figure 1:

The results show a quantitative and qualitative analysis using descriptive statistics to explain

the results obtained from the study population. Initially, Table 2 details the main products

that were mentioned by small-scale producers, indicating the products destined to sale and

self-consumption, products harvested in gardens, and minor products harvested. The

surveyed producers own approximately from 1 to 15 hectares, with an average of 6.02

4%

Within its production, Los Ríos farmers mainly grow rice, cocoa, and corn. In addition to the

products mentioned in Table 1, it was also mentioned to have family gardens and small farms,

in which fruit, vegetables, and herbs products are harvested. Table 2 presents the product

species studying the mentioned crops as primary, secondary, and additional products and,

they harvest approximately 79 products supporting the biodiversity and the food security in

small-scale producers’ families.

We present the top relevant crops and their destination, i) mainly destined for sale such as

rice, cocoa, and corn; ii) destined for home consumption, mainly fruit species such as orange,

watermelon, and mango; iii) grown in family gardens, rich in plant and herbal species and

producers that could access extension services, training, and accounting management,

$1.00 – $85

29,41%

58,82%