Community baskets II
Lead Organization:
Fundacion EkoRural
Partner Organizations:
Nuevo Amanacer, La Delicia, UTOPIA, CEMOPLAF
Community of Practice:
Countries:
Ecuador
Duration:
11/2011—11/2013
Overview:
Many smallholder farmers in Ecuador have abandoned agriculture in search of more lucrative opportunities, resulting in high rates of migration from rural areas to cities, or they are involved in extractive markets, which promote excessive use of agrochemicals and offer farmers little opportunity to negotiate prices. To counteract these trends, the “community basket” movement began around 18 years ago in Riobamba and has now spread to six cities, becoming increasingly popular with consumers and local governments. Community baskets are comprised of groups of organized urban buyers who purchase food wholesale. While the initial motivation for movement was for consumers to save on bulk purchases, groups have now expanded their focus to address issues such as food quality, environmental sustainability, and social equity.
Grant Aims:
To critically and deeply analyze the experiences with the existing mechanisms of direct access to local markets to understand the factors that enable and permit their expansion. To understand from the practice, it’s development, growth and expansion.To test promising interventions for transforming and strengthening thse intiative for market access through the establishment of new relationships among farmer organizations and consumers (urban and rural) that generate new forms of thinking, acting and organizing around local markets.Support small scale producers trasnform their production system in accordance with new demands for traditional, agroecological products, social equity and environmental sustainability.Influence policies in favor of healthy and local food systems.
Outputs and Outcomes:
The community basket Utopia represents 50% savings for consumer in relation to retail market, it is the same price at wholesale, for a much better quality.