AGROECOLOGICAL MARKETING AND TRAINING SPACES: LESSONS LEARNED AT UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR

Agroecological marketing spaces have expanded in the country, due to the importance that both consumers and producers are giving to this kind of production. However, the interaction that occurs between consumers and producers at fairs and how the latter become a pedagogical space for both of them has not been studied in depth. Therefore,the fair at Universidad Central del Ecuador was analyzed. Various research techniques were used, mainly interviews,surveys and bibliographic review on agroecology, agroecological markets, short agroecological networks and marketing.Two surveys were applied to consumers in the agro-ecological fair at Universidad Central del Ecuador. The first survey was applied to frequent consumers. The second one was applied to the same actors, once the fair was consolidated, to corroborate their preferences. This article aims to answer the following question: What have been the main lessons learned from the fair, as both a training and marketing a space for students, producers and consumers? The main conclusions show that the creation of the fair at Universidad Central represents an encounter between agroecology, education and social transformation within the academic curriculum, which also allows to identify thee elements of environmental education that are implemented in the current educational project. It was also concluded that consumers prefer agroecological products for health reasons, since they consider these products are cleaner than conventional ones. Finally, regarding the challenges and limitations of the study, it is worth mentioning the need to compare similar experiences with other educational centers, to generate joint learning experiences about these fairs.