The Northern Ecuadorian Amazon, the principal region of colonization of migrants in Ecuador since the 1970's, has been experiencing major changes in recent years, including a rapidly growing population, fragmentation of agricultural plots, changes in land use, and increasing off-farm employment, all of which are affecting farm household incomes and well-being. In this paper we use detailed data from a longitudinal survey of migrant settlers in 1990 and 2000 in Ecuador to first estimate farm household incomes, on-farm and off-farm. We then compute Gini coefficients for both land distribution and household income, and evaluate factors responsible for changes in household income in the 1990s. The article ends with a discussion of the policies that could reduce poverty and lead to a more sustainable standard of development.
Amazon; Ecuador; population; income; land use
