Evaluación del nivel de percepción de los productores sobre servicios ecosistémicos de la agricultura urbana de la ciudad de Riobamba

Abstract

The main aim of this degree study was to evaluate the level of knowledge and perception of ecosystem services of agricultural producers in the urban area of the city of Riobamba. The data collection process, in which 167 agricultural producers participated, was carried out in three stages: (1) pre-training survey, (2) training on ecosystem services and (3) post-training survey. The first stage consisted of a pre-training survey on ecosystem services, where the level of knowledge and perception was evaluated. The second moment consisted on the application of a training on ecosystem services. In the third moment, after the training, the level of knowledge and perception was again evaluated through a survey. The participants belonged to the five urban parishes of the city of Riobamba. It was found that most of the farmers participating in the study did not know about the concept of ecosystem services, which is associated with different aspects, such as, for example, the level of education, since 69 percent of the participants only have primary education. Through the study, it was observed that there was a difference in terms of pre- and post-training in which, on a 5-point evaluation scale, in the pre-training the score was 2.1 and after the training the average was 4.2, this emphasizes the need to carry out this type of training so that they have knowledge about ecosystem services and what they can obtain through their agricultural work.