FAO Digital Media Hub - ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra and her daughter feed their pigs

Hide details

Alternative Versions

Explore More Collections

Conceptually similar

ECUADOR, 2025. One of Zayra's hens

ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra is treasurer of the women’s savings group

ECUADOR, 2025. Flowers in Zayra's garden

ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra is treasurer of the women’s savings group

ECUADOR, 2025. Laying hens

ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra is treasurer of the women’s savings group

ECUADOR, 2025. Feeding the families chickens

ECUADOR, 2025. Harvesting maize

ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra talking to FAO officer

ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra arrives for the community group meeting

ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra is treasurer of the women’s savings group

ECUADOR, 2025. Holding wild blackberries

ECUADOR, 2025. Harvesting maize

ECUADOR, 2025. Members of local community groups

ECUADOR, 2025. Traditional woven hair tie

ECUADOR, 2025. Traditional weaving workshop

ECUADOR, 2025. Writing the monthly financial summary of the women's savings group

ECUADOR, 2025. Farmer's son playing outside

Similar tones

View images with similar tones

Add to collection

Download

ECUADOR, 2025. Zayra and her daughter feed their pigs

09 July 2025. El Cercado, Ecuador. Zayra Marisol Lanchimba and her daughter feed the pigs they raise for both family consumption and income generation. Through daily tasks like these, mothers pass on ancestral knowledge to their children—teaching them to care for the land and animals as part of preserving biodiversity and cultural identity in Cotacachi.

07/09/2025

Country or Territory Ecuador

Related URL Related FAO Feature Story: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/secrets-of-the-andean-chakras/en

UNFAO Source FAO Photo Library

File size 16.59 MB

Unique ID UF1ADPY

Editorial use only. Photo credit must be given. For further information contact: Photo-Library@fao.org

Background Information Kichwa women and their ancestral agricultural knowledge have sustained food security in Ecuador’s highlands for centuries. Their farms, known as chakra, were recognized in 2023 by FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). Indigenous women like Magdalena are seed guardians, preserving native maize varieties and passing this knowledge to her daughter Verónica.

Climate change-related droughts, floods and pests threaten this system, but with FAO’s support, organizations like UNORCAC work with Kichwa communities to strengthen resilience through the use and exchange of native seeds.