INTRODUCTION

Ecuador has a great diversity of climates due to its geographic location and varied topography. It has two main seasons: the rainy season (winter) and the dry season (summer), the duration of which varies by region. The coastal region has a tropical climate, characterized by rainfall from December to May and a summer season from June to November. The Andean region experience rain from October to May and summer from June to September, while the Amazon region exhibits variations between its north and south. The country's climate is influenced by ocean currents, such as the cold Humboldt and the warm El Niño, which alter climatic conditions, especially on the coast. Altitude also plays a crucial role, generating a temperature gradient that ranges from 0 to 26°C, and the mountainous terrain creates phenomena such as rain shadows, affecting the distribution of rainfall in different regions of the country (Varela and Ron, 2018).

In 2024, the total harvested area of potatoes in Ecuador was 13,689 hectares, representing a 23.9% decrease compared to the previous year. Annual production reached 0.2 million tons, representing a 15.6% year-on-year decrease. Potato crops are concentrated mainly in the Sierra region, where the provinces of Carchi, Chimborazo, and Tungurahua account for 65.0% of the total harvested area. The province of Carchi was the most productive, contributing 0.1 million tons and 60.7% of national production (INEC, 2024).

Family farming is defined as a family-run, businessbased agriculture productive unit that plays a crucial role in food security, agricultural job creation, and biodiversity conservation. The proposed agri-food systems for small and medium producers are based on ecological principles, are diversified and self-sufficient, integrating production items to maximize the efficiency of farm resources and using ancestral knowledge (Aguilera, 2022).

In the Ecuadorian Andes, crop rotations that include maize, legumes, potatoes, and quinoa are essential for conserving soil fertility and coping with climate variability. Studies in conservation agriculture systems show that alternating these crops improves soil structure, reduces erosion, and maintains yields, while the combination of maize, quinoa, bean or potatoes, legumes, cereals breaks pest cycles and optimizes nutrient use. Furthermore, these diversified rotations help stabilize food production throughout the year and strengthen food security in Andean communities (Blackmore et al., 2021).

Agricultural practices in Ecuador's Andes region have developed diversely according to altitude, climate, soil, and cultural traditions, and these practices directly influence the productivity and sustainability of family farming. For example, Pumisacho et al. (2002) analyzed potato and barley cropping systems in the highlands in Loja province, while Suárez et al. (2022) demonstrated that intercropping maize and legumes in smallholder systems in the Sierra region contributes to nitrogen fixation and improved soil fertility.

Meanwhile, Blackmore et al. (2021) reported that the growing season for traditional crops in Ecuador's Sierra runs from October-December (sowing), to May-June (harvesting) which means seasonal climate variability directly impacts farm production stability.

However, most of these studies were limited to specific crops (potatoes, maize, bean, etc.) or certain localities (Loja, Cotopaxi), and research providing a comprehensive comparative analysis of family farming practices across the entire Andes region remains scarce.

Therefore, this study surveyed crop diversity used in nine Andean regions of Ecuador to identify sustainable agricultural practices adopted by Andean family farms in response to increasing climate variability.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Survey area. The survey was conducted in nine Andean provinces of Ecuador: Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Chimborazo, Cañar, Azuay, and Loja. Within each province, the survey targeted the three districts (cantones) reporting the largest areas of crop cultivation. Four medium- or small-scale farms were surveyed in each district.

Farm scale. For this research, farms were categorized into three categories: small-scale (up to 3 hectares), mediumscale (over 3 but less than 10 hectares), and large-scale (10 hectares or more).

RESULTS

The cultivated area for crops by farmers in nine Andean regions―Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Chimborazo, Cañar, Azuay, and Loja―ranges from approximately 0.1 to 36 hectares (Tab le 1). The most widely cultivated food crops are maize, potatoes, barley, wheat, and oats. Barley, wheat, and oats are cultivated as crops, but they are also grown as forage for livestock. Legumes, including pea, bean, broad bean, and lupines (chocho), are grown in rotation or intercropped to improve soil fertility. These crops were cultivated in 27 of the 28 surveyed districts, excluding Pedro Vicente Maldonado.

Farms growing legumes mixed with other crops numbered 24, corresponding to approximately 21.8% of the 110 surveyed farms. Figure 1 shows intercropping of potatoes, broad bean, and maize in the Pillaro district of Tungurahua province.

Of the 110 farms surveyed, 59 (53.6%) utilize a combined crop rotation scheme (i.e., pastures-to-crop and crop-to-crop), 27 (24.5%) utilize a crop-to-crop rotation, 18 (16.4%) utilize pastures-to-crop rotation only. Six of the 110 surveyed farms practiced monoculture: including a tomato farm in the Saraguro district of Loja province and a farm producing palm heart in the Pedro Vicente Maldonado district of Pichincha province (Table 1). Fruit crops include avocado cultivation in the Colta area of Chimborazo Province and the Antonio Ante area of Imbabura Province, while peaches and apples are grown in the Paute area of Azuay Province (Table 1).

Potatoes are sown in January or February and harvested in late June in most regions, including the main potato- producing province of Carchi, as well as Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Cañar, and Loja (Table 2). Corn is sown in October and harvested in July of the following year in all Andean regions (Table 2).

As shown in Table 2, crops are grown year-round in most regions. In northern regions, such as Carchi, the rotation of potatoes and pasture is particularly prominent. Of the 28 districts surveyed, all but five ― Antonio Ante, Pedro Vincente Maldonado, Yaruqui, Nanegalito, and Oña ― practice pasture and crop rotation (Table 2). Crop rotation was practiced in 104 of the 110 surveyed farms, with a variety of crops centered around potatoes, corn, and broad bean. Potatoes were grown in approximately 64.6% (73 farms) of the surveyed farms, and the most frequent rotations were with pasture (24 times), corn (13 times), and pea (8 times) (Tables 2 and 3). Corn, along with potatoes, was a major rotational crop, being rotated with pea (9 times), pasture (8 times), and barley (6 times). Broad bean were also a major legume crop, and combinations of pasture (5 times) and corn (4 times) were frequently observed. Pastures were often maintained for livestock grazing, with periods ranging from a minimum of two months to a maximum of five years. Among the surveyed farms, 33 farms maintained pastures for two months to two years, and 47 farms maintained them for up to five years (Table 2). Rotation of potatoes and pasture crops was commonly observed in all surveyed areas, and rotation of corn-legumes ( pea, b road b ean, e tc.) a nd b road b ean-cereals was practiced i n most areas ( Tab le 2 , Table 3).

Intercropping was practiced in 26 of the 110 farms surveyed (approximately 23.6%). By province, Azuay province had the most intercropping with 5 farms, followed by Tungurahua (4 farms), Imbabura, Cañar, and Loja (3 farms each), and Carchi, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, and Chimborazo (2 farms each). Intercropped crops showed a generally similar pattern across the provinces, mainly centered around corn. Corn-pea were the most frequently practiced combination (12 times), followed by corn-bean (10 times), and cornbroad bean (3 times). In some regions, inter-cropping, such as potato-corn (1 time), and lupinus-corn (1 time) were also practiced (Tables 2 and 3).

Regarding seed sources for cultivation, results show that from 306 surveyed fields, 18.95% utilized Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP) varieties or certified seeds, while the remaining 81.05% utilized farmer-saved seeds (Table 4). By crop type, corn showed a higher proportion of certified seed use compared to potatoes: certified seeds were used in 34.8% of the 66 corn fields surveyed, whereas only 16.9% of the 71 surveyed potato fields used certified seeds (Table 4). Regionally, INIAP maize seeds are purchased and used in the Central and Northern Andes, while the Austro region exclusively uses farmer-saved maize seeds for cultivation (Table 4).

DISCUSSION

The research indicates that family farms in the Ecuadorian highlands employ diversified crop rotation systems, primarily combining potatoes and maize with pastures, legumes (broad bean, pea, bean, lupines, green bean), and cereals (barley, wheat). These practices reflect farmers’ sustainable soil management, which contributes to maintaining soil fertility, reducing the incidence of pests and diseases, and optimizing the use of available resources. The selection and sequence of crops depend on local agroecological conditions and the farm's productive purpose, showcasing the farmers’ dynamic adaptation and empirical knowledge.

This research showed that intercropping is also practiced among some Ecuadorian Andean farmers surveyed, indicating a diversified agricultural strategy. The most frequent comb inations a re m aize w ith legumes ( pea, b ean, b road bean), tubers (potatoes), and fruit trees, reflecting a traditional management approach aimed at optimizing land use, improving fertility, and ensuring food availability throughout the year. This practice not only strengthens productive sustainability but also contributes to the agroecological and economic resilience of Andean family farms.

In this study, the practice of rotating potatoes and pasture crops is particularly prominent in Carchi province. Pasture crops are grown for a period ranging from several months to five years, followed by a rotation with potatoes. In addition to crops for livestock such as barley, oats, and rye, livestock are grazed on pastures, accumulating manure in the soil, thereby eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers or reduces the amount of fertilizer needed for subsequent crops. Another benefit of rotating pasture and potatoes is that it prevents the development of soil-transmitted diseases that can occur when potatoes are grown continuously, such as purple top disease, late blight, and nematode infestation, among others.

As demonstrated in this research, intercropping mostly involves planting different legumes alongside potatoes or corn in an alternate manner. Given that fields in the Andean region have a small area, by planting multiple crops together, soil space is efficiently utilized and farm income is protected when crops are damaged by unpredictable weather events due to climate change or when market prices of specific crops decline. Furthermore, planting a variety of crops together reduces pest and disease outbreaks compared to monoculture and contributes to food security for farmers. Additionally, planting legumes together helps fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, reducing fertilizer use and enhancing soil fertility.

Regarding the planting season, the results show that farmers are flexible in their planting months, adjusting the potato and corn production cycles according to climatic conditions and water availability. Potatoes are primarily cultivated in the first half of the year, while corn is planted between September and October. Although several farms maintain two or three cycles of these crops per year to ensure continuous production, this reflects an adaptive strategy for maintaining their output as constant as possible all year long.

Diversified crop rotation is a key strategy for sustainable agriculture, simultaneously enhancing agricultural productivity and resilience to climate change while minimizing environmental impact (Schöning et al., 2023;Shah et al., 2021). This agricultural practice can contribute to improving soil health in the Andean highlands in several ways; for example, potato-oat-pea rotation increases the availability of nutrients such as phosphorus, boron, and zinc in the soil, which could be utilized for the development of established potato plants (Vargas et al., 2022). This system sustainably increases yield and microbial biodiversity, effectively reducing pests and diseases by disrupting their life cycles. Furthermore, it improves soil health by reducing erosion, increasing soil organic carbon content, and enhancing nutrient use efficiency (Shah et al., 2021).

While crop rotation is generally recognized for improving soil structure and nutrient cycling, long-term experiments have demonstrated that its effectiveness can vary depending on climate, soil, and management conditions. For example, Chahal and Van Eerd (2021) reported that under certain conditions, continuous nitrogen fertilizer use and rotation intensity can lead to carbon loss and unstable soil response. Rotations that include perennial legumes and cover crops increase labor and management costs, limiting their applicability to mechanized farms. However, the benefits often outweigh these challenges. Experiments conducted in southern Brazil reported that a multi-crop rotation system yielded 6.2% higher grain productivity and 37% higher net income compared to a simple soybean- corn double crop (Volsi et al., 2022). A study conducted in the cold highlands of northern China reported that crop rotation improved soil biochemical properties, enhanced beneficial microbial activity, and reduced pathogen accumulation, thereby improving crop yield (Qin et al., 2022). Crop rotation with a variety of crops benefits farmers, reduces risk and uncertainty in production, and improves soil sustainability and ecology. Farmers can diversify their income sources by adopting diversified crop rotations. Furthermore, due to the specific structure, function, and relationship of the plant community with the soil in crop rotation systems, this practice to the long-term development of soil health by decreasing the incidence of insects, weeds, and diseases, and by improving the soil's physical and chemical structure (Kumari et al., 2021).

Farms that implemented crop rotation achieved higher yields and lower seed costs, resulting in significantly greater profitability compared to those that did not. Furthermore, improved soil health and greater economic stability for smallholder farmers were observed. Qualitative analyses highlighted that factors such as climate and market conditions influence its adoption, confirming that crop rotation is an effective strategy for strengthening the sustainability and financial resilience of small-scale agriculture in Punjab, Pakistan (Hassaan et al., 2024). Diversified crop rotations increase equivalent yields by up to 38%, reduce N₂O emissions by 39%, and improve the system's greenhouse gas balance by 88% (Yang et al., 2024). Based on these data, it is worth noting that the inclusion of legumes in crop rotations stimulates soil microbial activity, resulting in an 8% increase in organic carbon stocks and a 45% improvement in soil health. Therefore, the large-scale adoption of this type of cropping system increases cereal production by 32% when wheat-maize is followed by alternative crops in the rotation, and farmers’ income by 20%. It is worth noting that, in addition to these benefits, this practice is also environmentally advantageous, as it is a sustainable approach (Yang et al., 2024).

On the other hand, intercropping has been reported to increase annual crop yields by 15.6% to 49.9%, increase farm net income by 39.2%, and reduce environmental footprint by 17.3% (Chai et al., 2021). Field trials conducted in the Colombian Amazon region reported that corn-soybean (or bean) intercropping improved biomass and yield even under acidic, low-fertility soil conditions (Suárez et al., 2022). A study conducted in Sichuan Province, China, reported that corn-soybean intercropping significantly increased photosynthetic activity and grain yield compared to monocropping (Zhang et al., 2023). However, the effectiveness of intercropping is believed to vary depending on the amount of sunlight available in the region. A study conducted in the western highlands of Guatemala found that intercropping maize, squash, and tuber crops increased total crop yield per unit area, but maize grain yield per unit area tended to decrease compared to monocropping (López-Ridaura et al., 2021). This may be due to the intercropping interfering with photosynthesis or competition for soil nutrients. Similarly, in a barley and pea intercropping system, under a 40 kg N ha⁻¹ fertilization regime, barley preferentially absorbed soil inorganic nitrogen, increasing its nitrogen uptake by 15-20%, while pea nitrogen fixation decreased by 35% (Andersen et al., 2004). This demonstrated that direct soil nutrient competition can occur between the two crops.

The traditional agricultural practices employed by smallholder farmers in the Ecuadorian Andes―particularly diversified crop rotation and strategic intercropping―represent sophisticated systems that effectively balance productivity, sustainability, and resilience. These practices, developed through generations of empirical observation, align remarkably well with contemporary scientific findings on sustainable agriculture. The integration of legumes, cereals, tubers, and pastures in rotation systems enhances soil fertility, reduces pest pressure, and provides economic diversification crucial for food security in highland communities. While challenges exist, including nutrient competition in certain intercropping combinations, the evidence demonstrates substantial benefits in soil health improvement, yield stability, greenhouse gas reduction, and income enhancement. As climate variability intensifies, preserving and promoting these time-tested Andean farming systems―combined with appropriate modern inputs such as improved seed varieties and technical support―offers a promising pathway toward achieving both food security and environmental stewardship in Ecuador's highland agricultural landscapes.

On the other hand, this study found that farms using certified seeds for crop cultivation accounted for 18.95% of the total 308 surveyed fields, while the remaining 81.05% planted farmer-saved seeds, indicating very low adoption of certified seeds. In particular, the Cañar, Azuay, and Loja regions cultivate varieties that have been grown for a long time in the Austro region using farmer- saved seeds. Farmer-saved seeds refer to seeds collected and stored by farmers from crops they have grown themselves for sowing in the next growing season. The low utilization rate of certified seeds is caused by three interconnected factors. First, there is insufficient promotion and lack of awareness among farmers about the importance of certified seeds for sustainable long-term production. This results in unstable demand for certified seed, causing companies that produce seeds for Andean crops to struggle to sell them to farmers (Zambrano, 2023). The second factor is the low trust small-scale farmers have in certified seeds, and the third is that, generally, small farmers cannot easily access certified seeds due to their high cost. Therefore, small-scale farmers prefer to use self-saved seeds or exchange seeds with their neighbors to reduce costs and cultivate varieties with which they are familiar (McGuire and Sperling, 2016).

Farmers in the Andes region have traditionally selected and cultivated local varieties of quinoa and potatoes to reduce vulnerability to various environmental risks (Delgado and Martin, 2025). Cultivating native varieties involves selecting specific traits that influence subsequent generations. This requires preserving seeds from plants exhibiting the highest productivity, pest resistance and excellent growth under local environmental conditions, and seed exchange across different locations and crossbreeding facilitated to maintain genetic diversity and adaptability (Delgado and Martin, 2025;Vernooy et al., 2022). Then, the environment acts as a selective pressure, allowing individuals with traits better suited to local conditions to survive and reproduce (Corrado and Rao, 2017). This gives as result landraces which are a rich source of genetic diversity (Liu et al., 2024), well-adapted to local environments like soil and climate, frequently exhibiting resistance to stresses such as drought, low temperatures, and frost (Marone et al., 2021). Additionally, native varieties contribute to preserving agricultural and sociocultural values, including food culture and traditional foods (Lazaridi et al., 2024).

Nevertheless, the decline of landraces in smallholder farming communities is attributed to multiple factors. These include susceptibility to climate change, alongside shifts in cultivation systems, marketability, and personal preferences (Lüttringhaus et al., 2021). This has caused farmers to preserve fewer of the native crop varieties and save seeds from cultivars developed for modern agricultural practices. These modern cultivars, being more genetically homogeneous, tend to be more susceptible to biotic and abiotic factors, become less productive over time, and can even serve as a source for spreading disease and pests (Khoury et al., 2022;Mutundi et al., 2018)

Research in Tanzania revealed that farmers using highquality maize seeds had a 33% probability of achieving yields exceeding 2 tons per hectare, whereas farmers using local varieties had only an 11% probability. Moreover, non-users of quality maize seed had 65% probability of harvest below 1 ton per hectare (Kadigi et al., 2025). Besides, farmer-saved seeds often exhibit low purity and germination rates and are frequently contaminated with pathogens. For example, farmer-saved maize seeds have been reported to be infected with pathogens such as Fusarium sp., Aspergillus sp., and Penicillium sp. at rates reaching up to 70.9% (Mutundi et al., 2018). Similarly, reused cassava seeds from farms showed a higher incidence of root rot (cassava brown streak disease) compared to certified seeds, with significantly reduced yields (Yabeja et al., 2025).

Furthermore, seeds selected annually from the same region and environment adapt only to specific conditions, making them vulnerable to climate change and pest outbreaks. Increasing genetic diversity within agricultural systems is crucial for addressing climate change and ensuring food security (Otieno et al., 2022).

This evidence underscores a critical paradox in smallholder agriculture: while farmer-saved seeds from modern cultivars present significant limitations in genetic diversity, disease resistance, and productivity, landraces also face challenges related to lower yields under certain conditions. However, landraces represent an irreplaceable reservoir of genetic diversity essential for breeding productive varieties adapted to local conditions and climate variability. Therefore, preserving landraces should be prioritized as a foundation for developing improved varieties that combine the resilience and adaptability of traditional germplasm with modern breeding's productivity advantages. Such varieties, if made accessible and affordable to smallholder farmers, would enable them to maintain high crop yields while securing their income and food security, ultimately contributing to the sustainability of Andean agricultural systems.

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