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ECUADOR, 2025. Cooking maize tortillas on the tiesto

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ECUADOR, 2025. Cooking maize tortillas

ECUADOR, 2025. Rodrigo Pacheco, FAO Goodwill Ambassador in traditional Andean kitchen

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ECUADOR, 2025. Preparing the fire to cook tortillas

ECUADOR, 2025. FAO Goodwill Ambassador Rodrigo Pacheco with Women’s Committee member, Luz María

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ECUADOR, 2025. Rodrigo Pacheco, FAO Goodwill Ambassador

ECUADOR, 2025. Women farmers prepare traditional tortillas

ECUADOR, 2025. Rodrigo Pacheco, FAO Goodwill Ambassador

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ECUADOR, 2025. Cooking maize tortillas on the tiesto

10 July 2025. Santa Bárbara, Ecuador. Hands of chef Rodrigo Pacheco, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Goodwill Ambassador, preparing a maize tortilla over a tiesto, a traditional Andean clay cooking vessel. This culinary practice highlights the deep connection between ancestral food traditions and biodiversity conservation in Cotacachi.

07/10/2025

Country or Territory Ecuador

Related URL Related FAO Feature Story: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/secrets-of-the-andean-chakras/en

File size 5.70 MB

Unique ID UF1ADRX

Editorial use only. Photo credit must be given. For further information contact: Photo-Library@fao.org

Background Information Kichwa women and their ancestral agricultural knowledge have sustained food security in Ecuador’s highlands for centuries. Their farms, known as chakra, were recognized in 2023 by FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). Indigenous women like Magdalena are seed guardians, preserving native maize varieties and passing this knowledge to her daughter Verónica.

Climate change-related droughts, floods and pests threaten this system, but with FAO’s support, organizations like UNORCAC work with Kichwa communities to strengthen resilience through the use and exchange of native seeds.