Education on altitude and coffee variety: Innovation and seedling
development in nurseries
Educación
sobre la altitud y variedad de café: Innovación y desarrollo de plántulas en
viveros
Published Instituto Tecnológico Superior Edwards Deming. Quito
- Ecuador Periodicity July - September Vol. 1, Num. 26, 2025 pp.
90-111 http://centrosuragraria.com/index.php/revista Dates of receipt Received: April 12, 2025 Approved: June 30, 2025 Correspondence author carlos.herrera@upec.edu.ec Creative Commons License Creative Commons License,
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es
Carlos David Herrera Ramírez1
Guillermo Alexander Jácome Sarchi2
Freddy Richard Quinde Sari3
Jeysonn Marcelo Palma Mera4
[1] Docente de la Universidad
Politécnica Estatal del Carchi, Ecuador. carlos.herrera@upec.edu.ec. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6155-905X 2 Docente de la
Universidad Politécnica Estatal del Carchi,
Ecuador. guillermo.jacome@upec.edu.ec. https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5311-2544 3 Docente de la
Universidad Politécnica Estatal del Carchi, Ecuador. freddy.quinde@upec.edu.ec. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4199-5131 4 Administrador de
los Centros Experimentales de la Universidad Politécnica Estatal del Carchi
– Ecuador. jeisonn.palma@upec.edu.ec.
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3750-5030
Keywords: High-altitude coffee, contextualized curriculum, sustainable
development, rural education, youth entrepreneurship, agricultural management.
Resumen: El presente artículo analiza la perspectiva de integrar la cadena de valor del café de altura (Coffea arabica), como eje pedagógico en el proceso educativo de la disciplina de Gestión y emprendimiento a nivel de bachillerato, en las instituciones educativas del sector rural de la Cuenca del Río Mira, Ecuador. A través de una metodología cualitativa y participativa basada en la sistematización de experiencias, se identificaron las oportunidades y desafíos de incorporar el enfoque cafetalero en las asignaturas de emprendimiento del bachillerato fiscal. Los resultados evidencian que contextualizar los contenidos escolares con la producción cafetalera, a lo largo del proceso agrícola desde la propagación de plantas a nivel de vivero hasta el procesamiento y luego la comercialización del café de altura con variedades especiales, fortalece el arraigo juvenil, promueve aprendizajes significativos y potencia la identidad territorial. Asimismo, se destaca la relevancia de la articulación interinstitucional y la cooperación internacional en el proceso educativo. La propuesta de currículo contextualizado incluye el uso de herramientas como la gráfica de la cadena de valor del café y actividades de aprendizaje por proyectos pertinentes con la región, orientadas a la creación de emprendimientos agroindustriales viables y al fortalecimiento de la economía local. Se concluye que la educación basada en la cadena del café constituye una estrategia transformadora que contribuye a mitigar la migración juvenil y a construir comunidades rurales sostenibles y resilientes.
Palabras clave: Café de altura, currículo contextualizado, desarrollo sostenible, educación rural, emprendimiento juvenil, manejo agrícola .
Introduction
The
Mira River Basin, located in northern Ecuador and extending mainly through the
provinces of Carchi and northern Imbabura, is a territory with significant
biocultural and agroecological wealth. It is characterized by its ethnic
diversity, with indigenous, Afro-descendant, and mestizo communities, and its
scattered rural configuration, where subsistence agriculture and local
marketing predominate. One of the crops with the longest history and greatest
economic importance in the area is coffee, especially the Coffea arabica
species, grown at altitudes between 1,200 and 1,800 meters above sea level,
under ideal climatic conditions and using techniques handed down from previous
generations (PROECUADOR, 2019; INEC, 2021). Despite its potential, the coffee value
chain still faces limitations in processing and marketing. However, in recent
years, associative initiatives, cooperation projects, and institutional efforts
have sought to strengthen coffee production as an engine of local development,
while recognizing the value of this crop as a formative and cultural element
within the territorial identity of the Mira River Basin (SENESCYT, 2020; COSPE
& FIEDS, 2022).
Although
Ecuador's rural areas have vast agroecological and cultural wealth, the
national education system still has limitations in terms of effectively
articulating with local productive environments. This disconnect is especially
evident at the high school level, where the curriculum content, particularly in
entrepreneurship, management, and project management courses, tends to be
abstract or based on urban examples, making it difficult for students to
acquire knowledge that is relevant to life and work in the region (Ecuadorian
Ministry of Education, 2016; Paredes & Ramos, 2019). As a result, many rural
youth fail to see agricultural production as an educational opportunity or a
viable path to economic development, which affects their motivation, weakens
their sense of belonging, and reduces their chances of remaining in the
community.
This
situation is exacerbated by limited access to applied agro-industrial
knowledge, poor coordination between educational institutions, farming
families, and universities, and the absence of pedagogical models that link
practice with context. As a result, a phenomenon of youth uprooting is
reproduced in which, after completing their secondary education, young people
migrate to urban centers in search of higher education or employment, and in
many cases do not return to their territories of origin, contributing to the economic
stagnation of rural communities (Tapia, 2018; SENESCYT, 2020). This reality
poses an urgent challenge for the education system: to reconfigure its
objectives and methodologies to promote education that is relevant to the
territory, values local productive knowledge, strengthens relevance, and
fosters the construction of viable life projects in the local environment.
Therefore,
the purpose of this research project was to highlight the logical relationship
that allows the coffee value chain to be integrated as a pedagogical axis in
high school entrepreneurship courses, with the aim of strengthening the
appropriation of agro-industrial knowledge and territorial relevance in rural
communities in the Mira River Basin. To this end, the intervention experience
between 2020 and 2024 was analyzed within the framework of the project to
strengthen the coffee production chain in the Mira River Basin, as a basis for
building meaningful territorial learning and presenting inputs for a curriculum
proposal applicable to rural public high schools, based on project-based
learning and supported by the production and marketing chain and the demand for
new models and techniques of entrepreneurial training.
Contextualized
education and territorial relevance
Rural
education has historically been approached from standardized perspectives that
do not take into account the productive, cultural, or ecological wealth of the
territories. In response to this limitation, contextualized education proposes
that curriculum content, methodologies, and educational goals should be
developed from and for the territory, favoring the development of skills
relevant to community and productive life (UNESCO, 2020).
According
to Tenti Fanfani (2010),
territorial relevance in education implies that schools respond to the needs of
their environment, strengthening local identity and providing tools for rooting
and sustainable development. In rural contexts such as the Mira River Basin,
where high-altitude coffee growing is a historical, economic, and cultural
activity, incorporating this topic into the school curriculum allows for a
reinterpretation of learning and projects young people as agents of change in
their community.
Freire
(1997) contributes from the perspective of critical pedagogy, arguing that
education must start from the reality of the learner in order to be
transformative. In this sense, addressing the coffee value chain in the
classroom not only teaches about a product, but also about a way of life, a
culture, and a shared productive history. One of the main challenges in rural
areas of Latin America is structural youth migration, largely motivated by the
lack of relevant educational and employment opportunities in their territories
of origin (ECLAC, 2019).
This
migration has profound consequences, such as population aging, loss of local
knowledge, and weakening of community ties. Authors such as Tapia (2018) and
Rengifo (2021) point out that building roots among rural youth requires
comprehensive policies that integrate education, entrepreneurship, and
territorial identity.
In
this context, schools become strategic spaces for cultivating ties to the
“homeland” through content, practices, and projects that promote staying,
entrepreneurship, and transformation.
Project-based
learning and real-life experiences
Project-based
learning (PBL) and experiential learning are methodological approaches that
place students at the center of the educational process, promoting the
resolution of real-life problems in their environment and the creation of concrete
products as evidence of learning (Thomas, 2000; Kolb, 1984).
In
the context of this study, working with the coffee value chain allowed young
people to develop entrepreneurial projects in different links (production,
processing, marketing, services), integrating technical, business, social, and
environmental knowledge. Situated learning is particularly valuable in rural
communities, as it promotes direct transfer between school and community life,
enabling young people to acquire skills that are useful for their local future,
and not only for urban or external contexts.
In
the context of the current challenges of entrepreneurship education, especially
in rural areas, it is essential to incorporate contemporary tools and
methodologies that promote a flexible, collaborative, and innovative mindset.
Techniques such as the agile mindset, the Canvas model, and the Lean Startup
methodology allow students to develop projects in an iterative, user-centered,
and practical way. These methodologies encourage adaptation to change, learning
from mistakes, and early validation of ideas, which are key principles for
developing resilient entrepreneurs who are committed to their environment.
Their integration into an updated curriculum not only brings dynamism and
relevance to the teaching-learning process, but also connects students with the
real logic of the market and the needs of their community, which is essential
in territories where innovation must emerge from the local level and with
limited resources (Ries, 2011; Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010; Denning, 2018).
Entrepreneurship
education with a territorial focus
Entrepreneurship
education has been incorporated into Ecuadorian high schools through subjects
such as Entrepreneurship and Management. However, in many cases, it has focused
on generic business models that are decontextualized or unviable in rural areas
(Ecuadorian Ministry of Education, 2016).
Authors
such as Herrera and de la Cruz (2017) propose a territorial entrepreneurship
approach, which promotes the creation of productive initiatives based on local
resources, ancestral knowledge, community networks, and existing value chains.
This type of approach is aligned with the principles of the popular and
solidarity economy and with endogenous development models. The experience of
the “Café Entre Montañas” project shows that students
can actively participate in collective branding, fair trade, barista training,
rural tourism, and product development if they are provided with technical
support, adequate pedagogical training, and opportunities for integration with
territorial actors.
Entrepreneurship
in Ecuadorian public high schools
In
the Ecuadorian educational context, entrepreneurship is formally incorporated
into the high school curriculum through specific subjects such as
Entrepreneurship and Management, Project Management, Life Project, and
Integrative Projects, in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of
Education. This incorporation responds to the objective of training students
with life and work skills, capable of identifying opportunities, generating
viable ideas, managing resources, and making decisions based on ethical and
sustainability principles. The General Framework for the High School Curriculum
establishes that entrepreneurship should be understood as a process that
articulates creativity, innovation, leadership, and social commitment, oriented
toward personal and community well-being (Ecuadorian Ministry of Education,
2016).
However,
despite its presence in regulations, multiple studies and field observations
show that school entrepreneurship is often developed in isolation from the
local environment, with examples and projects that are far removed from the
reality of students, especially in rural contexts (Paredes & Ramos, 2019).
This creates a gap between what is taught and what young people need to build a
life project in their territory. Hence the importance of territorializing the
entrepreneurial approach, incorporating into the aforementioned subjects
production models specific to the area, such as the coffee value chain in the
Mira River Basin. This approach not only allows for the development of the
skills outlined in the curriculum, but also enhances the relevance of rural
education, strengthens community ties, and stimulates community transformation
from the school (Herrera & de la Cruz, 2017).
Methodology
This study is
part of a qualitative, proactive approach based on the systematization of
experiences, which responds to the need to understand and transform educational
realities, particularly in rural contexts where traditional, productive, and
community knowledge play a central role.
From the
qualitative paradigm, it is assumed that social reality is constructed by the
actors who live it and that knowledge is generated from the interpretation of
meanings, values, and practices that emerge in a given context (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2018). In this case, the research process focuses on recovering,
analyzing, and interpreting an intervention carried out between 2020 and 2022
in the Mira River Basin, Ecuador, where the project “Strengthening the coffee
production chain to promote commercial associations and guarantee fair prices
for producers” was developed. This experience provided a set of relevant
lessons on the link between rural youth, coffee production, and
entrepreneurship education.
The research is
also proactive in nature, as it does not merely describe or analyze a situation,
but proposes a contextualized pedagogical intervention model: a curriculum
strategy that integrates the agro-productive approach into the three
entrepreneurship subjects of the Ecuadorian public high school system. This
perspective is based on the contributions of Colomer (2009), who argues that
educational research should be oriented toward social transformation through
viable proposals that respond to the problems identified.
As a central
methodological strategy, we opted for the systematization of experiences,
understood as a scientific, reflective, and critical process of reconstructing
a meaningful social practice. According to Jara (2012), systematization
involves “organizing, ordering, and critically interpreting an experience,
rescuing its lessons and understanding its internal logic.” This methodology is
particularly relevant in rural contexts, where educational innovation must
emerge from the knowledge generated by local actors themselves, articulating
technical, traditional, and academic knowledge.
The scientific
method is expressed in this qualitative study through the rigorous application
of the following elements: clear formulation of the problem, coherent
methodological design, use of appropriate data collection techniques
(interviews, workshops, document review), categorization and interpretation of
data, and validation of the proposal through dialogue with relevant actors. As
Flick (2015) points out, validity in qualitative research does not depend on
statistical replicability, but on the interpretative rigor and comprehensive
depth with which social phenomena are addressed.
This approach
made it possible to identify curriculum gaps, youth perceptions, and
opportunities for educational improvement, and led to a proposal that seeks to
promote the territorial relevance of the curriculum in coffee-producing
communities, strengthening the sense of belonging and youth roots.
This study is
part of a proactive and participatory qualitative approach, based on the
systematization of the empirical experience of the intervention project carried
out between 2020 and 2024: “Strengthening the coffee production chain in the
Mira River Basin to promote commercial associations and guarantee fair prices
for producers.” Its methodological purpose is to design a contextualized
educational proposal that incorporates coffee entrepreneurship into the
Ecuadorian public high school curriculum, addressing the need for territorial
relevance and youth empowerment in rural areas.
The target
population is rural youth between the ages of 16 and 20 who are enrolled in
high school in public educational institutions located in the Mira River Basin
(provinces of Carchi and Imbabura). This region has historically been a
producer of Arabica coffee and currently faces challenges related to youth
migration, unemployment, and the underutilization of agricultural production
chains with economic and cultural potential.
The program
worked specifically with third-year high school students and teachers of the
following subjects: a) citizenship education, b) entrepreneurship and
management, c) life planning, and d) integrative projects.
These three
subjects constitute the pedagogical core of the Entrepreneurship and Management
block according to the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education's curriculum and offer
concrete opportunities to integrate productive, business, and social content
with a local focus. The sample consisted of three rural public schools (two in
the province of Carchi and one in Imbabura), 72 students (aged 16 to 20,
intentionally selected for gender representation, grade level, and community
participation), and six teachers of the three key subjects.
The study was
developed under a methodological design specified in three phases:
Phase 1: Recovery
of project experiences (2020-2024)
The lessons
learned during the implementation of the project “Strengthening the coffee
production chain in the Mira River Basin” were systematized, with an emphasis
on: a) identifying viable production, associative, and commercial practices for
young people; b) mapping local actors with potential for educational
coordination (producers, associations, municipalities, universities); c)
evidence of young people's lack of interest in coffee farming due to a lack of
knowledge or educational connections.
Techniques used:
this involved reviewing technical reports on the project and conducting
in-depth interviews with eight leading producers and six local agro-industrial
technicians.
Phase 2:
Participatory diagnosis with young people and teachers
Participatory
workshops were designed with high school students and semi-structured
interviews were conducted with teachers of entrepreneurship-related subjects,
exploring the following topics: a) young people's perception of coffee as a
product that defines their identity and as a life choice, b) level of knowledge
about coffee production, processing, and marketing, c) interest in developing
school projects related to coffee, d) current limitations of the curriculum in
addressing production-related content. The information gathering tools were an
interview guide for teachers, a participatory questionnaire for students, and a
class observation sheet.
Phase 3: Design
of a contextualized curriculum proposal
Based on the
findings from the previous phases, a modular educational proposal was designed
that can be implemented across the three subjects in the entrepreneurship
block. This design includes: thematic areas linked to the coffee production
chain, learning outcomes aligned with the national curriculum, teaching strategies
based on project-based learning (PBL) and experiential education, and
activities that promote co-creation among students, teachers, and community
actors.
Among the
criteria for validity and rigor, the following were reinforced in the
methodological triangulation: integration of primary sources (interviews,
workshops) and secondary sources (reports, national curriculum), contextual
relevance: all activities were adapted to the socio-productive reality of the
Mira River Basin; active participation: youth and teacher leadership was
prioritized in the design of the proposal; and peer review: the first draft of
the proposal was evaluated by three experts in rural education and local
development.
Results
Evidence of the
educational potential of the coffee production chain highlights that during the
systematization process, multiple pieces of evidence were identified
demonstrating that the coffee production chain, approached pedagogically from
the local context, has high potential to strengthen school learning,
entrepreneurial skills, and territorial roots among young people in public high
schools. This potential is evident in the articulation between community
knowledge, the agroecological conditions of the environment, and the
requirements of the national curriculum.
The agroclimatic
potential of the territory, from the Mira River Basin, has ideal agroclimatic
characteristics for the cultivation of high-altitude coffee (Coffea arabica),
especially in areas between 900 and 1,800 meters above sea level, with average
temperatures ranging between 18 and 23°C and adequate rainfall distribution
throughout the year. These conditions allow the development of varieties of
Coffea arabica, which require medium to high altitudes to produce quality beans
with distinctive sensory profiles. The varieties that have been identified and
that allow the quality indices described in this area to be achieved are:
Caturra and Geisha as the main ones.
These
characteristics make the area a territory with a coffee-growing vocation that
has not yet been fully exploited, representing an educational opportunity to
train young people to value, understand, and improve the agro-industrial
processes of their own community. In addition, successful cases of family farms
that are beginning to transition to organic production and fair trade practices
were observed, adding value to sustainability education.
Diversity of
species and local production practices: in the rural areas visited during the
systematization process, different varieties of coffee were identified, such as
Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Geisha, and Catuaí, which allows for the development
of differentiated educational activities on plant genetics, climate adaptation,
species selection, and good agricultural practices. This biodiversity is key to
the design of educational content on topics such as agronomic innovation,
bioeconomy, and quality improvement strategies.
During the
development of the project within the framework of this inter-institutional
cooperation, the Carchi State Polytechnic University identified and produced
90,000 plants of two varieties of high-altitude coffee with special
characteristics for their production and development, namely Geisha and
Caturra, which were delivered to family production units in the project's area
of influence. Integrating these species into the curriculum opens up a range of
practical activities, from seed germination and nursery management to selective
harvesting techniques and post-harvest processing (wet and dry processing),
facilitating integrated learning in natural sciences, mathematics, and business
management.
The coffee chain
as a living educational laboratory and from the follow-up carried out in the
schools that participated in the pilot tests of the coffee approach, it was
revealed that working with the coffee production chain allows the agricultural
environment to be converted into a living laboratory, where students can
observe, experience, and understand economic, ecological, and social phenomena
from an integrated perspective.For example, in the “Entrepreneurship and
Management” course, real projects were designed to calculate production costs
and profit margins for cups of coffee sold at local fairs. In “Life Project,”
debates were generated on the meaning of continuing in the community as rural
entrepreneurs, and in “Integrative School Project,” learning paths were planned
that included everything from participatory diagnosis of the family farm to the
design of business models.
These activities
not only strengthened motivation but also the development of cross-cutting
skills such as leadership, collaborative work, critical thinking, and
sustainability. Disconnection between the school curriculum and the productive
vocation of the territory: one of the main findings was the lack of connection
between the content of entrepreneurship subjects in public high schools and the
productive reality of rural communities. Although the subjects of
Entrepreneurship and Management, School Projects, and Life Project address key
concepts such as ideation, planning, business models, and environmental
analysis, their application in the classroom tends to be abstract, with
examples far removed from the coffee-growing environment, which is one of the
region's historical and central economic activities.
Teachers reported
that they lack contextualized teaching materials and training processes that
would enable them to focus their classes on specific agro-industrial
enterprises. This creates a perception among young people that education is
irrelevant, fueling migration, school disengagement, and disconnection from
their productive culture.
Despite the
disconnect between the curriculum and the reality of rural life, the workshops
revealed a high level of interest, creativity, and desire among young people to
remain in the area, provided they are offered training and productive
opportunities that are consistent with their environment. The participatory
workshops revealed that students have practical, empirical knowledge about
coffee cultivation and harvesting, inherited from their families, but lack
technical training in processing, marketing, and presentation of value-added
products (such as ready-to-drink coffee beverages). Likewise, many young people
expressed interest in entrepreneurship activities that link coffee growing with
community tourism, digital marketing, and cultural identity, demonstrating a
creative potential that is not being exploited by formal education.
Valuing
coffee-growing experience as a core element of the curriculum
Another key result
was the identification of coffee as a core element for a situated pedagogical
approach that can be integrated across the three subjects in the
entrepreneurship block. The project experience showed that when young people
participate in real coffee processing and marketing processes, they develop
technical, organizational, and communication skills with high educational
value. The processing of coffee into ready-to-drink beverages, the design of
local brands, participation in fairs, and links with producer associations
generated significant and motivating learning experiences, allowing young
people to recognize the value of their territories and project themselves as
agents of change.
In the absence of
contextualized teaching materials, both students and teachers stated that the
texts and guides available in the Entrepreneurship and Management, Integrative
School Project, and Life Project courses present generic examples focused on
urban, commercial, or technological ventures and do not consider the agricultural
reality or value chains present in rural areas. This has created a cognitive
and emotional barrier, as students do not feel reflected in the content and,
therefore, are unable to construct meaningful learning from their environment.
This disconnect
between the curriculum and reality directly affects school motivation and
retention, as pointed out by Freire (1997), who argues that education must
start from the context of the learner in order to be transformative. The lack
of materials that explain, for example, how to process coffee, calculate sales
prices, design packaging, or analyze the viability of a coffee venture prevents
the teaching-learning process from having local relevance and cultural
relevance.
Insufficient
teacher training with a territorial focus, on the other hand, showed that
teachers responsible for entrepreneurship subjects have not received specific
training in agro-industrial entrepreneurship or active learning methodologies
linked to rural productive projects. Many of them come from urban areas or have
no experience in associative processes or productive chains such as coffee.
This creates a
pedagogical barrier that limits teachers' ability to guide relevant and
contextualized projects. As Kolb (1984) points out, experiential learning requires
facilitators who are able to connect theory and practice in real situations.
However, without tools or previous experience, many teachers opt for expository
strategies or abstract exercises that fail to engage the interest or abilities
of rural students. Furthermore, the current model of continuing teacher
training does not include specialized modules on local economics, territorial
development, or agricultural entrepreneurship, which perpetuates this gap
between the curriculum and the productive vocation of the environment.
Coffee as a
symbol of pride and a possibility for the future
Young people in
the Mira River Basin said that their neighboring territories had managed to
position themselves as sustainable tourist destinations based on their agricultural
production, and that they could do the same with coffee. In this sense, coffee
was no longer seen as a family burden or subsistence activity, but came to be
understood as a cultural and economic resource capable of driving innovation,
territorial differentiation, and youth entrepreneurship.
Many students
said that “what they did in Guanábana Republic can be done here, but with
coffee,” referring to the tourism development of a neighboring sector based on
the development of a brand around the cultivation of soursop (Annona muricata)
in the area surrounding the study, demonstrating a reinterpretation of the
product not only as a source of income, but also as an element of identity and
pride. This change in perception coincides with the postulates of Freire
(1997), who defends the need for education to be anchored in the knowledge and
dreams of the learner, in order to generate critical awareness and commitment
to their context.
Greater
motivation and ownership of learning, both in classroom activities and
practical exercises, teachers noticed a significant increase in student
motivation and participation when coffee was proposed as a cross-cutting theme
in the subjects of Entrepreneurship and Management, Life Project, and
Integrative School Project.
Unlike generic
topics, the coffee focus allowed young people to visualize a possible and
achievable life project, connecting technical learning with their family and
community realities. Exercises that included coffee harvesting, production cost
calculations, brand design for local coffee shops, and sales simulations at
school fairs sparked an interest in learning by doing. This appropriation is in
line with the proposals of Kolb (1984) and Thomas (2000), who emphasize that
meaningful learning is strengthened when students actively participate in real
projects with purpose.
Education for
roots, not for migration, one of the expressions most repeated by young people
during the focus groups was: “with coffee, we can stay and do something good
here.” This phrase sums up one of the most important transformations in
pedagogical terms: the coffee approach not only promotes entrepreneurial
skills, but also stimulates processes of territorial rootedness, which are
fundamental in rural contexts where early migration is an entrenched social
pattern.
Teachers valued
this transformation as key to revaluing rural public schools as spaces for
innovation and local development, overcoming the view of education as mere
preparation for leaving the territory. Consequently, the educational proposal
based on the coffee chain is not only pedagogically relevant but also socially
strategic for strengthening sustainable communities.
Positive
institutional intervention and structural conditions for the educational coffee
approach
UPEC's
contribution to training, technical assistance, and outreach
The participation
of UPEC teachers, researchers, and students helped strengthen both the
technical-productive component and the focus on sustainability and
entrepreneurship in the coffee-growing communities of the basin. The
agricultural program promoted good agricultural practices, productive
reconversion processes, ecological phytosanitary management, and agroclimatic
characterization of areas suitable for coffee. At the same time, the Business
Administration program provided training in associative models, commercial
strategies, cost analysis, and business plans focused on coffee as a
value-added product. This collaborative work generated a process of knowledge
transfer between the university and the community, but also allowed for the
development of educational prototypes that are now proposed for inclusion in
public secondary education as part of a territorialized curriculum.
International
cooperation support: COSPE and FIEDS. The project was implemented with funding
from the Italian-Ecuadorian Fund for Sustainable Development (FIEDS) through
the Italian organization COSPE, which ensured standards for planning,
monitoring, and impact evaluation. This cooperation made it possible to
coordinate a network of local actors (parish governments, producer
associations, educational centers, and universities) under an approach based on
a solidarity economy, fair trade, and territorial relevance. Within this
framework, the inclusion of an educational component was not an isolated
element, but rather a cross-cutting strategy, in which youth capacity building
was understood as an investment in long-term sustainability.
Infrastructure
installed: The Carchi Provincial Government's coffee roasting plant
Another
structural element that reinforces the viability of the coffee chain-based
educational approach is the existence of a coffee roasting plant installed in
2018 in the canton of Espejo with support from the Provincial Government of
Carchi. This plant is equipped for roasting, grinding, and packaging coffee,
allowing the agroindustrial cycle to be closed in the same production area. The
existence of this infrastructure creates a unique opportunity for educational
and productive coordination, as it allows high school students to visit the
plant, understand industrial processes, analyze product traceability, and
design local and international marketing strategies. It also opens the door to
partnerships between educational institutions and processing centers, which can
become a replicable pedagogical practice in other rural areas of Ecuador.
The coffee value
chain as a teaching tool: one of the most significant findings of the
educational intervention of the project “Strengthening the coffee production
chain in the Mira River basin” is the functionality of the coffee value chain
graph as an integrative teaching resource in the Management and
Entrepreneurship subjects that are part of the Ecuadorian public high school
curriculum.
The graph divides
the coffee value chain into four main phases: 1) Primary production
(coffee-producing market): starts with the seed, goes through the production
and harvesting stages, until the coffee is obtained in parchment form. 2)
Processing: includes the roasting process, followed by grinding, where added
value is generated. 3) Marketing (coffee beverage market): shows the passage of
ground coffee to its distribution at retail outlets and commercial
establishments, where it is transformed into a beverage. 4) Consumption and
complementary services: reflects the importance of equipment, machinery, and
specialized services for the preparation of the final beverage.
This
visualization provides a sequential, clear, and applicable understanding of the
links in the process, facilitating its use in teaching activities focused on
project-based learning, business simulations, entrepreneurship plans, and
technical agricultural education.
From the
perspective of the participating teachers, the graph allowed them to establish
curricular links with the competencies of each of the subjects in the area,
such as:
• Identification
of business opportunities,
• Design of
management models,
• Proposal of
local value-added production chains,
• Management of
marketing processes in short circuits.
On the part of
the students, the inclusion of this tool sparked interest by showing the real
integration of technical knowledge with the nearby rural environment,
strengthening their sense of belonging. They clearly recognized how an
agricultural product such as coffee can become a beverage, a brand, a consumer
experience, and even a tourist attraction, as is already the case in
geographically nearby areas that have migrated from traditional crops to
sustainable tourism ventures.
This result
demonstrates that incorporating this graphic into educational processes not
only improves understanding of the coffee economic cycle but also fosters
entrepreneurial vision among rural youth, aligned with the potential of their
territory. Building brand identity with community participation: As part of the
intervention process carried out between 2020 and 2024, one of the most
significant results was the collaborative creation of the name and visual
identity of a collective brand for coffee produced in the Mira River basin.
This process was carried out in November 2020 through six workshops led by
teachers from the Business Administration program at the Polytechnic State
University of Carchi (UPEC), with the active participation of coffee consumers,
restaurant and café owners, university students, and young people from the
community.
These workshops
were designed as theoretical and practical collaborative learning exercises,
combining content from subjects such as Brand Management, Services Marketing,
and Territorial Entrepreneurship. The methodology used was based on market
research tools, brainstorming, semiotic analysis, and brand prototyping. As a
result, the name "Café de Carchi. Café de Altura," but this was not
approved by the National Intellectual Property Service (SENADI).
In view of this
refusal, the Carchi Coffee Growers' Economic Integration Network (REDCAFC)
proposed a new name: “Café Entre Montañas,” which was approved by SENADI and
officially registered as a collective trademark under the SENADI-2022-17513
procedure, with protection for coffee-based beverages and coffee in the
International Class. This process not only consolidated a community-based
collective trademark with intergenerational participation, but also
demonstrated the educational potential of the coffee approach as a focus for
entrepreneurial training that is relevant to the region for young people in the
sector. The experience has become a replicable educational practice in
Ecuador's technical high schools, especially in management and entrepreneurship
courses.
There is a clear
need and opportunity to reconfigure the pedagogical approach of Ecuadorian
public high schools toward models of contextualized, productive, and
territorially relevant education. First, the findings confirm what authors such
as Freire (1997) and Vygotsky (1978) have argued from a critical and
sociocultural pedagogical perspective: learning becomes meaningful when it is
linked to the real lives of learners, their prior knowledge, their culture, and
their material conditions. In this study, by linking the teaching-learning
process to the coffee value chain, processes of identification, motivation, and
a sense of belonging were activated among young people between the ages of 16
and 20, who saw their reality and future potential reflected in school
activities.
This approach
breaks with the traditional logic of rural education that is disconnected from
the territory, which often prepares students to leave their communities rather
than transform them. As Tenti Fanfani
(2010) points out, school should be a place where young people learn to stay
with dignity and build a future in their context, not just a stepping stone to
migration or urban underemployment. One of the most complex challenges
identified in the Mira River Basin is precisely the phenomenon of youth
migration for educational reasons, especially to cities such as Ibarra, Quito,
and Tulcán. Upon completing high school, many young
people leave their communities in search of higher education, and in most cases
they do not return to their native territory, either due to a lack of job
opportunities, the absence of decent conditions for entrepreneurship, or an
emotional break with their place of origin.
This situation
leads to a progressive generational drain, leaving rural communities as aging
spaces with little productive innovation and scarce social renewal. In this
context, the proposed coffee approach not only fulfills an educational role,
but also a strategic one: it strengthens the emotional, cultural, and economic
ties of young people to their homeland, allowing them to imagine a possible
life in their own community. The incorporation of tools such as the coffee
value chain chart in the classroom demonstrated that it is possible to work on
integrated learning in economics, agribusiness, management, and marketing in an
experiential and collaborative manner. This experience is consistent with the
approaches of project-based learning (Thomas, 2000) and experiential learning
(Kolb, 1984), which promote the resolution of real problems and the development
of skills that can be transferred to work and community life.
In addition, the
participation of the Carchi State Polytechnic University, through its
Agricultural and Business Administration programs, constitutes a good practice
of inter-institutional linkage between higher education, secondary school, and
the productive community, contributing to closing gaps between academic
knowledge and practical knowledge. This is consistent with the territorialized
technical education frameworks proposed by ECLAC and UNESCO, which advocate for
the articulation of education systems with local productive systems. The
experience of participatory construction of the collective brand “Café Entre Montañas” (Coffee Between Mountains), with university and
community youth, also confirms the educational value of real entrepreneurship
processes, where concepts of marketing, associativity, intellectual property,
and solidarity economy are applied. This type of situated learning fosters not
only technical skills in young people, but also critical awareness,
empowerment, and economic citizenship.
On the other
hand, the identification of structural barriers—such as the absence of
contextualized teaching materials and limited teacher training on productive
issues—points to the urgent need to review and update teacher training, as well
as the available pedagogical resources, so that they respond to the productive
realities of rural Ecuador. If these gaps are not addressed, the implementation
of approaches such as the coffee one could be restricted to specific
initiatives, without becoming a systemic educational policy.
Finally, the
study invites us to consider the coffee value chain not only as an economic
opportunity, but also as a hub for interdisciplinary learning and identity
building for young people. Its potential to bring together agricultural,
technical, business, and social knowledge makes it a strategic pedagogical tool
for advancing toward a more equitable, relevant, and transformative secondary
education.
Conclusions
The
systematization of the educational experience linked to the project
“Strengthening the coffee production chain in the Mira River Basin” has
demonstrated the high pedagogical potential of the coffee value chain as a core
component of the entrepreneurship curriculum in Ecuador's public high schools.
The incorporation of content, visual tools, and practical activities related to
coffee made it possible to generate meaningful learning, develop
entrepreneurial skills, and strengthen rural youth's sense of belonging to
their territory. One of the most relevant findings was the recognition of
coffee not only as a traditional crop, but also as a symbol of territorial
identity and an opportunity for sustainable economic development. The focus on
coffee, as part of the subjects of Productive Enterprise Management,
Organization Management, and Entrepreneurship and Management, promotes the
integration of technical, business, and social knowledge.
Likewise, it was
found that the use of the coffee value chain graph as a visual teaching tool
facilitates the understanding of complex processes, allowing students to design
realistic and contextualized ventures. This experience, reinforced by
theoretical and practical exercises and the active participation of community,
university, and productive actors, consolidated situated, democratic, and
intergenerational learning. Another critical aspect addressed in this study was
youth migration for educational reasons, a phenomenon that has led to the aging
of rural communities and the loss of economic dynamism. In this context, it was
concluded that rural schools must be transformed into spaces for imagining and
building viable futures in their own territories, avoiding generational
breakdown. The coffee approach is a concrete strategy for promoting youth
rootedness through education.
Finally, the
participation of institutions such as UPEC, the support of the Provincial
Government of Carchi, and the backing of cooperation agencies such as COSPE and
FIEDS demonstrate that inter-institutional coordination is key to promoting
educational processes with a territorial impact.
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