IX World Quinoa Congress, Canar-Ecuador

EXECUTIVE REPORT OF THE IX WORLD QUINUA CONGRESS AND VI INTERNATIONAL ANDEAN GRAINS SYMPOSIUM OF 2025 IN THE ARQUELOGICAL AND CULTURAL CAPITAL OF ECUADOR

The Association of Producers of Seeds and Nutritional Andean Foods Mushuk Yuyay – APROSANAMY is the result of the struggle (1960-1970) for the mother Earth, and later for education. This resulted in the connecting of the Kañaris to the Research Center, and in that Center, the conception of the importance of the seed in the productive process. On this basis, and by means of participatory research, and the transference of technology, in 1994, Nicolás Pichazaca Mayancela organized the Association Mushuk Yuyay, and in the year 1996, the demand for seeds obliged him to create the culture of finance, now known as YUYAY Ltd.  

The research, the transfer of technology, and the market study permitted the generation of value added of Andean and Andeanized grains, positioning the Association’s products ALLI MIKUNA in more than 130 points of sales in the local and regional markets, forming the reference of identity and resistance. In this environment, associative production is stressed in various parishes and cantons of the Province of Cañar, and promotion of the culture of healthy diets is achieved through the arts in the area schools now that quinua, amaranth, and chocho (limpini) considered super foods for better cognitive development, as well as an alternative in the face of poverty, malnutrition, and climate change.

Since 1990, creativity and innovation in research, production, and consumption have been shared at local, regional, and national events.  This creativity and innovation were also shared in 2013, in the IV World Quinua Congress in Ibarra, Ecuador, and, in the same year, in Oruro, Bolivia in observance of the International Year of Quinua, as well as in 2023 at the VIII World Quinua Congress at Potosí, Bolivia. This is where APROSANAMY was given the responsibility of representing Ecuador in organizing and executing the IX World Quinua Congress and the VI International Symposium of Andean Grains.  

This assignment for APROSANAMY was complex and transcendental because it was the first time a community organization has committed to lead a worldwide scientific meeting. There is no precedent for this type of event in the Tawa Inti Suyu (Andean Region) during the Colonial or Republican eras. We proposed an alternative Congress, based on the realities, focused on cultural matrix, searching for a meeting between Western knowledge and ancestral Andean wisdom in the heart of the living community culture, in the Community Intercultural Bilingual Educational Institution – UECIB, and the Bilingual, Intercultural Secondary Educational Center of Quilloac – ISPEDIB QUILLOAC.

In June of 2023, the proposal of the Congress was designed and management begun in search of economic assistance. Pascual Pichazaca as project president of IX CMQ-VI SIGA 2025, and Tayta Nicolás Pichazaca M. – leader and founder of the organization – Executive Secretary of the Congress, and Cristóbal Pichazaca G. as Cultural Manager, and Jenri Casho in Communications. All of whom had to initially overcome stereotypes given to the organizations of Peoples and Nationalities (racism) as well as to the Province of Cañar where the organizational capacity was questioned along with the lack of infrastructure for events of this nature.

The IX World Quinua Congress was structured and developed on 3 components: 1. Academic Scientific: The backbone of the Congress that integrated volunteers with most positive and brilliant minds in the current history of the Kañari People made up the Scientific Committee. They were led by Ranti Chuma, who, together with scientists, knowledgeable local people, and the organizational committee of the Congress resolved to address thematic focal points: The agro-centric matrix and Andean pachasophia (a blend of the Kichwa Pacha for worldspace/time and the Western philosophy – the Andean point of view); Phylogenetic resources and biodiversity; Production systems and climate crisis; Agroindustry and markets; Andean grains and integral nutrition and health; and Community and public policy. This permitted the exposition of more than 90 research projects from national and international sources, where farmers, community researchers, organizations, research centers, businesses, local, national, and international scientists and academia, with representatives from the sister countries of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, France, Germany, United States, and Mexico. All of this was carried out by an internal and external scientific committee made up of national and international scientists.

It is important to mention that since the First World Quinua Congress held in 2005 in Lima, Peru, and those carried out later in Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina, and until the VIII world event was developed, there were five thematic tables. In the IX World Congress, a new thematic table was added: Andean grains, integral health and nutrition, and in the thematic table of Public Policy, there was a small turn to Community andpublicpolicy. This was to focus and promote and increase the per capita consumption of Andean grains in the communities, and among the urban population because, by and large, the origins of the species cultivated in the world, or the nutritional and medicinal values of these grains are not known.

In this process, we brought together the project Diaspora and Reuniting of the Kañaris, where the mother grain, Quinua, integrated the Greater Kañari Nation through the delegation of the Kañaris – Inkawasi, Province of Ferreñafe, Lambayeque Region of the Republic of Peru. Also, for the first time in the history of the Congress, there was the participation of the young scientists of the Ecological Education Institution, MONTESSORI. 2. CULTURAL ARTS, MUYU FEST – Festival of Seeds: Conscience of the fact that art is a medium of relations, integration, education, reflection, and strengthening of social cohesion, we propose artistic activities within the Academic-Scientific agenda such as the theatrical work El Viaje de la Semilla (The Voyage of the Seed), visual arts, dances originating in the region, folkloric dances, musical arts, and others. 3. Commercial Exchange pointed to a fair of international character called Integration of Tawa Inti Suyo (the Four Regions under the Sun), providing the first step with a vision of strengthening this component in future events. 

During the two years of management and preparation, alliances were established with: national and international research centers, academic institutions, private businesses, GADs (local governments), NGOs, International cooperation, communities, and organizations. In this way managing to plan, organize, and execute, this ninth Congress with success, in cooperation with the Bilingual/Bicultural schools of Quilloac, the municipal and cantonal governments of Cañar, provincial government of Cañar, McKnight Foundation, TRIAS Andes, Heifer Project, FEPP, Maquita Foundation, Banco Codesarrollo (Development Bank), FAO, RICOLTO Ecuador, Cooperative Yuyay Ltd, ElecAustro, and Condesa. The program concluded with a panel of guests addressing the theme: Practical strategies to eradicate infantile malnutrition among the Peoples and Nationalities through use of Andean grains. Then the responsibility for the X World Quinua Congress was given to the brothers and sisters of the Republic of Argentina.

The job of post Congress for the Kañari territory is to recuperate and invigorate the productive matrix of Andean grains and the title of Cañar, Granary of the South. How? First by boosting the production of grains with an agroecological focus, while mitigating, preserving, and adapting to climate change. Second, by strengthening and creating entrepreneurship with the youth, providing seed capital and operating capital. Third, by reducing emigration through understanding and awareness of the importance of local agrodiversity that still endures in the territory and healthy cultural diets. Fourth by increasing the potential the Kañari cultural industry and that of the local population of Cañar in the southern region of Ecuador.

To achieve this aspiration and projection, it is fundamental that GlobalGiving analyze carefully and inject and/or finance through a project, through which, at the moment, the Association Mushuk Yuyay is preparing a budget.

Prepared by:

Nicolas Pichazaca M

Leader, Founder

Cristobal Pichazaca G

Cultural manager

Cañar, January 8, 2026