The participatory research with farmers was carried out in order to know the socioeconomic and productive reality of blackberry farmers no thorn (Rubus glaucus Benth) from seven cities in the state of Risaralda, taking into account the technological demands of the crop. It was carried out with 328 producers, grouped into 40 subgroups, participatory methodologies were used such as Participatory Rural Diagnosis, appraisals, direct and participant observation, interviews and semistructured dialogues, group discussions and analysis, information output matrices, ideas for group reflection, talking maps, analysis of qualifications and scores, comparison of opinion groups, workshops, semistructured interviews, field days, participatory research plots and field transects, from an on-demand research scheme. It was found that the cultivation of blackberry no thorn in Risaralda is 90% of peasant agriculture, it is carried out in plots of between 0,5 to 1 hectare, under the modalities of ...

This article presents the structure of living strategies of the rural organization "Village Foundation Council" located in the Travesías village, municipality of Calarcá, where a study with nine families beneficiary of the process of the agrarian reformation Law 160 of 1994 took place which had as objective the identification of living strategies of the homes and the restrictions which inhibit the success of these strategies. The study was carried out through the characterization of the production systems and the identification of livelihood families display for their survival. The DFID-Department for International Development-Livehood Focus methodology was used to value the human, social, natural, physical and financial capitals by means of the measurement of 17 indicators belonging to five capitals.The results of the study allowed the identification of the ways of livelihood used by this community to adapt to the new dynamics generated by the effects of globalization in the rural sector in peasant economy and particularly because of the coffee growers crisis. It was possible to achieve the identification of strategies that the families implement in order to generate income and better living conditions as well as the interactions that exist between these and social phenomena such as poverty, origin and distribution of incomes, policies for diversification, diversification vs. agriculture, social organization, education and access to markets. The results of the study, shows that the capitals with higher evaluation were the social with a 4.16 average and Physical with a 4.04. average The capitals with lower evaluation were the Social with a 3.09 average and the financial with a 3.29 average. The natural capital is located in a middle range with 3.56. KEY WORDS Livelihood, coping strategies, human capital, human capital, natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, peasant economy. INTRODUCCIÓN El Enfoque de Medios de Vida nació a finales de la década de 1980, como respuesta a la necesidad de contar con un marco propicio para el análisis integral de las estrategias de vida de los hogares rurales [Chambers y Conway (1991), Bebbington (1999), DFID (1999) y WFP (2001) citados por Stoin y Donovan (2010)]. Un medio de vida comprende posibilidades, activos (incluyendo recursos tanto materiales como sociales) y actividades necesarias para

ResumenEl estudio presenta los resultados del estado y desempeño de la sustentabilidad de sistemas productivos de la Asociación de Caficultores Orgánicos de Colombia ACOC, mediante once indicadores locales relacionados con los recursos y la operación del sistema, comparando resultados para dos ciclos de evaluación en 2005 y 2010.Las evaluaciones se hicieron de manera participativa con treinta familias campesinas de la ACOC, utilizando la metodología MESMIS -Marco para la Evaluación de Sistemas de Manejo de Recursos Naturales Incorporando Indicadores de Sustentabilidad. Para el análisis estadístico se construyó un plano factorial con once variables activas de tipo categórico, una variable categórica ilustrativa de cuatro localidades: Restrepo, Buga, Riofrío y el corregimiento de Fenicia, y una variable continua ilustrativa correspondiente a los Índices de Sustentabilidad. Los resultados presentaron reducciones del 1.8% y del 15.8% para los grupos 1 y 3, respectivamente; y un aumento del 13.2% para el grupo 2. Los indicadores que mayor variabilidad presentaron fueron Agrodiversidad sustentable, Biodiversidad y Autosuficiencia Alimentaria. En general los cambios en los indicadores fueron leves, mostrando que la sustentabilidad de los sistemas productivos de la ACOC tuvo un comportamiento equilibrado durante los cinco años que transcurrieron entre las dos evaluaciones.Palabras clave: Indicadores, sustentabilidad, MESMIS, Asociación de Caficultores Orgánicos de Colombia, Caficultura. AbstractIndicators establish a very useful tool to evaluate in a near way the sustainability of agriculture, from a multidimensional focus that integrates ecologic, economical, sociable, cultural, and political variables, interacting in a specific agro ecosystem. The study presents the results of the state and performance in the sustainability of productive systems of the Association of Organic Coffee Growers of Colombia AOCGC, by means of eleven local indicators related to the resources and operation of the system, contrasting the results of two cycles of evaluation in 2005 and 2010.The evaluations were made in an interactive way with thirty peasant families of the AOCGC, using MESMIS methodology -Framework to Assess the Sustainability of Alternative Natural Resource Management Systems. For the statistical analysis, there was created a factorial plane with eleven active, categorical variables, one illustrative categorical variable of four locations: Restrepo, Buga, Riofrío, village of Phoenicia, and an illustrative continuous variable to the Sustainability Indexes. The results presented cutbacks from 1.8% to 15.8% for the groups 1 and 3, accordingly; and an increase of 13.2% for the group 2. The indicators that presented the greatest variation were sustainable agro diversity, biodiversity, and alimentary self-sufficiency. In general, the changes on the indicators were not meaningful, showing that the sustainability of the productive systems of the AOCGC had a balanced behavior throughout the five years that passed among the two evaluati...