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The food insecurity and inadequate management of family farm production persist as global challenges. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze the socioeconomic and agricultural production management factors associated with food insecurity in rural households in the Machángara river basin, located in the province of Azuay, Ecuador. Data were collected through a survey administered to households selected from a stratified random sample. Subsequently, the Latin American and Caribbean Household Food Security Measurement Scale (ELCSA) was developed to assess food insecurity in relation to socioeconomic factors and agricultural production management. This involved employing both Binomial Logit and Ordinal Logit models in the STATA ® 16 program. The findings reveal that being the married head of a household, residing in an informal dwelling, possessing a latrine, cultivating medicinal or ornamental plants, and the correlation between expenses and income are significant variables that elevate the likelihood of experiencing food insecurity. Consequently, this research offers timely insights to assist policymakers in implementing effective strategies to support food-vulnerable rural households.

he aim of this paper is to analyze the perceptions of the quality of the service of the tourists who visited the rural areas of the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, as a complement to the tourist offer of this destination ‐cultural heritage of humanity‐. A questionnaire with a scale Servqual ‐ Service Quality was obtained from a sample of 326 tourists to measure the quality of tourist services. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (AFE) was applied to determine the dimensions of service quality that collected only the perceptions of the defined elements and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (AFC) to confirm the factorial structure. The findings show five dimensions of quality: security, tangibility, trust, empathy and capacity, and its factorial structure was corroborated, with an adjustment of the appropriate indices. The study suggests that rural spaces should offer quality in their tourism offer as an attraction for tourists within the destination.

Fair commercialization networks represent a direct economic and social participation mechanism for small producers in rural areas. Women’s participation is a pillar in short commercialization, which incorporates family income and economic independence, as well as food diversification in the territory. This research aims to analyze short commercialization circuits (SCCs) for agroecological foods as a contribution to productive development in the rural Andean area of Pillaro canton. This research, developed between April 2019 and May 2020, involved a quantitative approach and cross-sectional data collection. The Farm Sustainability Indicators (IDEA) method was used for the analysis, which establishes three scales: agroecological, socio-territorial and economic sustainability. The results show that SSCs contribute to food security through low-cost food, diversification, and nutritional products. In addition, SCCs allow a closeness between producers and consumers that provides greater confidence in the products offered. The ratings of 35.0 for the sustainability scale, 30.52 for the socio-territorial scale, and 17.5 for the economic scale indicate that the short commercialization circuits observed in the area consist of a sustainable system that allows for the social and economic improvement of producers in the rural Andean area of Pillaro canton, as well as the improvement of the natural environment.

Rural tourism in Ecuador is an essential economic and cultural activity due to the diverse natural resources offered by the communities. It is the responsibility of governmental entities, especially decentralized autonomous governments (GADs), to promote and manage rural tourism by proposing strategies for progress that make it possible to establish mechanisms for socioeconomic reactivation in the communities. Based on this premise, the purpose of this research was to learn about the role of the public sector in tourism management in the rural parishes of Cuenca. The methodology used was a descriptive qualitative approach, through the in-depth interview technique, which helped to achieve a detailed description of the perceptions of officials belonging to public entities in charge of managing tourism. On the other hand, tourism providers and tourists from rural parishes were also interviewed, who indicated their perceptions about the tourism management of the public sector in the rural area of the canton of Cuenca. The main results indicate that the entities in charge of managing tourism in rural parishes do not manage tourism agendas, lack of trained tourism personnel, lack of promotion, no training for tourism providers, neglect of tourist attractions, weaknesses in the administration of tourism resources and attractions, lack of planning and management of tourism resources, and lack of training for tourism providers.

Background: Globally, 811 million people suffered from hunger in 2020, figures that increased due to Covid-19, making “zero hunger by 2030” unattainable (1). For this reason, people's food and nutritional security (SAN) is a challenge and it is necessary to examine its process in households and older adults (PAM). Objective: To analyze food security and its relationship with nutritional status in older adults in the rural area of the 24 de Mayo canton, Manabí province, Ecuador. Method: It was a cross-sectional study, with a sample of 344 older adults from the rural area of the 24 de Mayo canton, province of Manabí, which was calculated using the stratified random sampling method. The Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) was used to measure household food insecurity and the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA®) to assess nutritional status.Results: 91% of PAM households presented mild food insecurity. 72% were found to be at risk of malnutrition. There was a relationship between the level of food insecurity and nutritional status, BMI, arm circumference, beneficiaries of the human development bonus, Internet use, sex and age. Conclusions: A large number of PAMs present a risk of malnutrition; There is a statistically significant relationship between the nutritional status assessed by the MNA, and the level of food security presented by households in the PAM.

En el mundo, cerca de 2.000 millones de personas padecen inseguridad ali- mentaria moderada o grave por la falta de acceso regular a alimentos nutritivos y suficientes (FAO et al., 2019). El número de personas que padecen hambre ha aumentado a casi 821 millones (FAO, FIDA et al., 2018) y en América Latina y el Caribe a 39,3 millones, siendo las personas que viven en las zonas rurales las que tienen mayor riesgo de padecer inseguridad alimentaria (FAO, OPS et al., 2018), afectado el cumplimiento del objetivo hambre cero para 2030. En efecto, el 46% de las personas en el mundo padecen hambre (FAO et al., 2019).

Food security is a condition that allows people permanent access to food for a better quality of life; therefore, it is a priority for the economic development of countries. In this context, this research aims to determine the importance of purchasing power and education in the food security of families in rural environments using Chambo canton, Ecuador as a case study. Considering the deductive method, the research is descriptive correlational, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. For data collection, a questionnaire based on the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale was applied to 230 households out of a total of 3585 households. The results showed that the variables of number of income earners and total family income have a high relationship with food security, unlike level of schooling. It was concluded that education does not represent a decisive factor for food security in rural environments, although its incorporation as a variable is important for improving quality of life.

Inadequate food and nutrition affect human well-being, particularly for many poor subpopulations living in rural areas. The purpose of this research was to analyze the factors that determine the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) in the rural area of the Paute River Basin, Azuay Province, Ecuador. The sample size of 383 surveys was determined by a stratified random sampling method with proportional affixation. Dietary diversity was measured through the HDDS, with 12 food groups (cereals; roots and tubers; fruits; sugar/honey; meat and eggs; legumes or grains; vegetables; oils/fats; milk and dairy products; meats; miscellaneous; fish and shellfish) over a recall period of 7 days. A Poisson regression model was used to determine the relationship between the HDDS and sociodemographic variables. The results show that the average HDDS of food consumption is 10.89 foods. Of the analyzed food groups, the most consumed are cereals; roots and tubers; fruits; sugar/honey. In addition, the determinants that best explain the HDDS in the predictive model were housing size, household size, per capita food expenditure, area of cultivated land, level of education, and marital status of the head of household. The tools used in this research can be used to analyze food and nutrition security interventions. Furthermore, the results allow policymakers to identify applicable public policies in the fight against hunger.

Responsible marketing is used in companies whose activities are socially responsible, and can be adjusted to public policies that provide a positive impact on society; for example, front nutritional labeling. Ecuador was a pioneer in Latin America in the mandatory implementation of the traffic light nutrition labeling (NTLL), to provide consumers with reliable information to counteract the generation of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) due to poor nutrition caused by the consumption of processed foods. For this reason, the purpose of this research was to analyze responsible marketing in the nutritional traffic light labeling (NTLL) of food products, from the perception of consumers in Cuenca, Ecuador. It was a cross-sectional research. The sample consisted of 384 surveys, determined by stratified random sampling. The Chi-square test (ꭓ 2) was performed, which showed the relationship between the variables knowledge of responsible marketing, with age, sex, marital status, education, occupation, income, expenses, understanding and use of the NTLL. On the other hand, the Ordinal Logit Model (OLM) was performed, which revealed that the variables that contribute to people's likelihood of a level of understanding of the NTLL, were education, labeling knowledge and marketing knowledge. Finally, the Binomial Logit Model (BLM) revealed that, the variables income level, knowledge of the ESN, diseases, trust in the NTLL, influence of COVID-19 on eating habits and marketing knowledge were variables that influenced people to have higher probabilities of using the NTLL. It is concluded that responsible marketing is present in the NTLL through the clear and understandable dissemination of information. However, it still needs to be consolidated towards more effective practices that guarantee the intake of healthy and quality products

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the initiatives aimed at raising awareness of local communities on the importance of protecting and promoting distinct goods for sustainable food, culture, arts, and tourism, at EU level, to balance globalized food trends. The study carries out a comparative analysis at the level of three European Regions of Gastronomy: Coimbra Region, Sibiu Region, and South Aegean Region. The key areas of the Region of Gastronomy Award program: raising citizen awareness about the food they eat, the value of local products, and the need to innovate to protect local products. The benefits of such initiatives and their contribution to empowering local communities and to a better quality of life were identified and highlighted.

Eliminating food insecurity is one of humanity’s greatest global challenges. Thus, the purpose of this research was to analyze the factors that determine food insecurity in households in the rural area of the Paute River Basin, Azuay Province, Ecuador. Stratified sampling was used as the sampling method, with proportional affixation. Moreover, we employed the Latin American and Caribbean Household Food Security Measurement Scale (ELCSA). We estimated the main determinants of household food insecurity using two binomial logit models and one ordered logit model. For the analysis of the data, the respective statistical and econometric tests were employed. The results show that housing size and access to food security information are the most important determinants of food insecurity in the three predictive models applied in this research.This research contributes to the existing literature on food insecurity and provides important information forpolicymakers, especially regarding food insecurity in rural areas, which has profound economic and social implications.

Numerous studies have analyzed the factors that determine food security and explored the problem from regional or national points of view. However, there has been less research targeting an understanding of the food security problem at the household level in specific rural locations like indigenous communities. Indigenous groups are recognized as priority groups in Mexico, because they live in a situation of poverty. For this reason, the objective of this research was to investigate the determinants of food insecurity among the indigenous communities of the Sierra Tarahumara in Mexico. We used the Latin American and Caribbean Household Food Security Measurement Scale (ELCSA). This scale is useful for measuring food insecurity levels in households. A questionnaire was administered to 123 households. We employed the method based on Cronbach’s alpha to measure internal consistency, which was 0.96. In addition, we estimated the main determinants of household food insecurity using both ordered logit model and binomial logit model. We found that approximately 59.35% of households were living in a situation of severe food insecurity. The two predictive models applied suggest that: i) income is the most important determinant of access to food; ii) increased maize production improves food security; iii) farmers consume their seed stocks in times of food scarcity, and iv) households are food insecure when the householders are in casual employment. Akaike’s information criterion and the Bayesian information criterion suggest that the goodness of fit to the data was better for the ordered logit model.