Conceptual and methodological design for measuring food autonomy in indigenous communities

Abstract

Food sovereignty is a political concept that includes agroecological production, hunger reduction, rural poverty and environmental degradation. However, its approach does not adequately address several aspects, such as ancestral patriarchy in collective territories, democratic food choice of producers and consumers, governance of the commons , and community agency to transform power structures that restrict the social welfare of communities within and outside the territory. This article proposes a conceptual and methodological framework under the concept of food autonomy, which is useful for researchers and governments in making decisions about local agroecosystems. The methodology used was mixed and participatory, comparing three indigenous communities of La Guajira, two Wayuu (Tekia and Cerro de Parashí) and one Kogui (Tugueka). A guided tour, two interviews, twelve surveys and three workshops were conducted in each community. The comparison was made by means of a synthetic index, constructed among the actors involved, which revealed that when a community governs the common goods and has greater agency, as in the case of the Kogui, its food autonomy is greater.