(AGENPARL) – Wed 01 October 2025 [cid:8b8a67c1-fb4f-4433-89bf-6318d2d91de0]
Secrets of the Andean chakras
Indigenous Women lead climate action to preserve agrobiodiversity in Ecuador’s highlands
[cid:8b3b5d1f-b90b-43e7-b415-ffb950d14606] ©FAO/ Johanna Alarcón
There are still hours to go before dawn, but the roosters of Magdalena Laine are already crowing when the 59-year-old farmer from the Kichwa Indigenous Peoples turns on the sole bulb illuminating the patio of her farm, located outside the Ecuadorian Andean town of Cotacachi. Then, she begins to sieve the maize flour vigorously.
“I woke up at 1:30 a.m. because clients come very early,” says Magdalena, referring to the customers frequenting the Sunday La Pachamama nos alimenta (Mother Earth feeds us), an agroecological market where some 300 Kichwa women come weekly to sell their produce.
While Magdalena handles the flour, one of her daughters, Verónica Cumba Laine, 29, is working with her father and a younger sister to prepare the other products Magdalena will be selling at the fair—fresh vegetables, lemons, lupins, quinoa and eggs.
They also sell the maize flour and bags of native varieties of maize kernels, that Verónica and Magdalena carefully prepared the evening before. They sell the good kernels at the market but keep the best ones for planting next season.
“Right after the harvest, we store the varieties of maize and select the healthiest, cleanest kernels. We preserve them for the next planting season,” says Magdalena.
“My mother is a seed guardian. She preserves many native varieties of maize seeds. She is teaching me everything about crops,” explains Verónica.
Their plots or farms are locally known as chakra, a biodiverse agricultural system recognized in 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). In addition to nutrition, food security and income, chakras provide Kichwa People medicine, fuel and fodder.
By sunrise, customers already crowd around Magdalena’s stand at the market, held at the headquarters of the Women’s Central Committee of the Union of Peasant and Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations of Cotacachi (UNORCAC). Before noon, she sells almost everything, earning around 50 USD, enough to cover the needs of her family for a week and put aside some money for her daughter’s education.
The production in chakras, where an average of 25 crops are cultivated, is mainly used for home consumption.
“Without farming the chakra, we wouldn’t have much food to eat,” acknowledges Verónica.
However, through the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) mechanism, FAO has supported improving the production of crops in chakras so that the surplus can serve as income generation. The FFF supports local producer groups to provide training to Kichwa women in skills like accounting and marketing to help them engage in direct sales to customers in Cotacachi and other urban centres. Since 2019, some 13 500 rural families throughout Ecuador have benefited from FFF-supported projects.
Women and land
The secrets to the agrobiodiversity of the Andean chakra are its Kichwa Indigenous women and its topography. Indigenous Women, like Magdalena, are seed guardians, experts on preserving and maintaining the local varieties of native seeds, most notably maize, beans, and squash, while the Andean mountains in this region are formed by unique plateaus—locally known as pisos climáticos— that offer diverse climates and environments. These plateaus, with their different altitude and microclimate variations, are crucial to the large array of crops, vegetables and fruits that Kichwa families produce and enjoy.
Climate change-related extreme weather events, like droughts and floods, are now threatening this system, with changing temperatures affecting which crops traditionally grew at which altitude. These changes may also erode the knowledge that Kichwa women pass down to new generations, for instance when a certain crop needs to be planted.
“When I was a kid, the climate was normal. Now the climate is changing… The sun is so strong that my clothes seem like I have an iron on my back,” comments Magdalena.
She explains the family must now deal with new pests and drier conditions that “kill the plants” and reduce yields.
With the financial support and technical assistance of FAO, farmers’ organizations like UNORCAC are implementing several initiatives to strengthen the climate resilience of communities. UNORCAC is working with Kichwa communities to diversify food production through the use and exchange of native seeds.
“We have seen on our chakras that native seeds resist frosts and droughts,” says María Piñán, leader of the Women’s Central Committee of UNORCAC.
Saving together
FAO is also assisting women-led saving groups with trainings in finance. These community-based credit systems offer microloans to its members, enabling rural communities to invest in their plots and improve productivity or cope with emergencies such as a failed harvest. In Cotacachi, some saving groups have increased their credit capacity from 30 USD to over 2 000 USD in five years.
“Strengthening the saving groups is part of our strategy to transform the agrifood sector with a vision of inclusive rural development. Without economic resilience, adaptation to climate change will be difficult to achieve,” explains FAO Representative in Ecuador, Gherda Barreto.
As she sits by Magdalena in the chakra’s patio, Verónica has lived the challenges of climate change but is confident that the ancestral knowledge passed to her by her mother will help her –and future generations– overcome the difficulties.
“Here, women are the ones with the initiative… When I have my own family, I have to sow as my mother did, the same way she taught me. Everything she taught me will stay with me, and I should continue this wisdom.”
Every 16 October – World Food Day – is a chance to celebrate food heroes around the world. From farmers and fishers to innovators and chefs, food heroes are leading local and global efforts to create more sustainable and resilient agrifood systems. But we can all be food heroes: respect food, eliminate waste, reduce unnecessary consumption. Our actions are our future. Let’s build a better one together.
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