An economic and environmental assessment of farmers' practices to propose strategies that alleviate a pertinent agricultural problem in Cuenca, Ecuador

Hoffman, Dylan; Garcia, Joshua; Bush, Trevor; Shen, Justin

Student Work

An economic and environmental assessment of farmers' practices to propose strategies that alleviate a pertinent agricultural problem in Cuenca, Ecuador

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Working with faculty and Master’s students from the Agronomy Department at the University of Cuenca, our project aimed to understand farmers’ lifestyles in the region of San Antonio de Gapal to identify a pertinent problem, and to propose strategies to resolve that problem. To do this, we interviewed 12 farmers in the region, observed their properties, and analyzed collected data to create strategies to mitigate these issues. Our key finding was that water collection and retention during droughts and excessive rain was a critical issue for farm productivity. Lastly, we conducted a participatory SWOT analysis to share our recommendations, which were to increase the number of barrels, investigate the use of fog nets for water collection, and reduce erosion with terraces among others.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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