Analyzing Food Sources and Food Insecurity of Kichwa Farming Families in the Ecuadorian Amazon

While the right to food is internationally recognized and the United Nations established the sustainable development goal to end hunger and achieve food security by 2030, many households remain without consistent access to food in 2024. In Latin America, approximately 4 in 10 households were reported as food insecure in 2020 with higher rates in rural and indigenous communities. Rural areas, which have great overlap with indigenous communities in Ecuador, experience disproportionately high levels of poverty and food insecurity compared to urban areas. The most populous indigenous nationality in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the participants of this study are the Kichwa or Runa people that practice indigenous agroforestry through chakras. Approximately 60,000 Kichwa people inhabit the lowland Amazon, but their nutrition and food security is threatened by urbanization, extractive activities, and deforestation that jeopardizes the proliferation of their agricultural systems. This study aims to identify the food sources of Kichwa farming families and their household levels of food insecurity to provide greater specificity about food insecurity levels that are not represented by regional and national analyses. I identified food sources and food insecurity levels through a daily food log, semi structured interviews, and a food insecurity survey conducted in two communities. This study measured the food insecurity of families that practice chakra agroforestry to discuss the dynamic relationship between household agricultural production and food security. I surveyed eleven families total across two communities near Tena, Ecuador. Across both communities, families were moderately or severely food insecure with their food originating from chakra cultivation, outside markets, and forest and river resources adjacent to their agricultural land. I determined that Kichwa farming families do not have consistent, sufficient access to food and additional research must be conducted connecting sociodemographic factors to household food insecurity. Further research into the most effective resources and assistance for Kichwa farming families would also provide important information as to how the broad issue of food insecurity may be mitigated.