PERSPECTIVES OF THE TERRITORIAL MODEL FOR OCAÑERA ONION IN THE PROVINCE OF OCAÑA, COLOMBIA

Abstract

The production of Ocañera red onion, which has been identified in this province for years, is gradually disappearing from the onion-growing landscape. The shift from Ocañera onion to Peruvian onion is generating a new configuration of this territory, where processes of deterritorialization of the Ocañera onion and reterritorialization of the Peruvian onion are combined. The general goal of the research is to propose the conceptual framework of a multidimensional territorial-agroproductive model for analyzing the productive configuration of the territory with quality and well-being indicators from a historical hermeneutic approach that helps the interpretation and understanding of the perceptions of organized peasant communities. The results say that the shift from Ocañera to Peruvian onion has marked a strong trend of transformation from family farming to corporate farming, with a predominance of wage labor in the countryside. The onion-growing landscape is also identified with all the characteristics of a fluid territorial system that enables the projection of integrated management scenarios; this serves as an alternative to the glocal effects of the reticular territory constructed around the red onion between the province of Ocaña and the producing areas of Peru. Finally, the resurgence of the Ocañera onion involves the revitalization of the historical-hermeneutic relationship between the diffusion of consumption, technology, and the revaluation of food products. This research provides a reflection from territorial analysis models that vindicates the Ocañera onion farmer and their way of life in the face of the corporate model of the Peruvian onion, which does not align with the bioclimatic offer of the province and generates dependence on global market flows.