Livelihood strategies of cacao producers in Ecuador: Effects of national policies to support cacao farmers and specialty cacao landraces

This study identifies the livelihood strategies pursued by small cacao farmers in the Guayas coastal region inEcuador, where two distinct cacao varieties are grown: thefineflavor variety, Cacao Nacional (CN), and a hybridvariety (CCN-51). Enhancing CN production is regarded as an economic development strategy since CN varietybeans are characterized by premium prices in international markets. This study aims to assess the trade-offsfaced by small cacao producers in the production of specialty (CN) vs. commodity (CCN-51) cacao and how theyaffect their livelihoods. A detailed household survey sampled 188 households. Based on activity variables, fourlatent profiles of livelihood strategies were identified, which were related to capital asset endowment and in-come share variables. The results show that there was not a clear gap between cultivation of CN and CCN-51, as60% of the sampled households simultaneously grew both varieties. The results indicate that the variable“shareof land allocated to CN”does not significantly contribute to discriminating among profiles. Households with alow share of land allocated to CCN-51 showed higher income diversification strategies and vice versa. Our studyalso shows that the lack of appropriate incentives may threaten the future cultivation of CN since the Nationalpolicy for CN rehabilitation has had little impact on the more cacao-driven profiles that have a lower assetendowment. The design, structuring and maintenance of a domestic differentiated value chain for the CNvariety, together with income diversification measures and prior improvement on the asset endowment of theseprofiles, seems to be the pathway to improve the livelihoods of small farmers and increase the success of thecurrent policy forfineflavor cacao rehabilitation at the national level