Gold mining activity is a source of supply in many areas of the world, and especially in developing countries, it is practiced illegally and by applying unsafe techniques. Particularly in Ecuador, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is widespread, and it is based on the use of toxic substances, such as mercury (Hg), in gold recovery. Hg is a heavy metal that is water-insoluble, which, once mobilized, poses a threat to both the environment and human health. This study analyzes Hg concentrations in the six provinces of Napo, Sucumbíos, Orellana, Pastaza, Morona Santiago, and Zamora Chinchipe of the Ecuadorian Amazon region to conduct a human health risk assessment. Significant differences in Hg levels were found between provinces, but concentrations were below MPL imposed by Ecuadorian regulations everywhere. Nevertheless, a worrisome picture emerges, especially with regard to the most vulnerable receptors represented by the child population. There are multiple factors of incidence that may affect the possible future development of the phenomenon, and with reference to the social, economic, and environmental context of the region, it can be concluded that it may be appropriate to plan further investigation to arrive at a more comprehensive assessment. The results of this study can be used by decision makers to plan further investigation and to implement monitoring networks, risk mitigation strategies, and groundwater protection measures.

In Ecuador, illegal gold mining has led to significant environmental impacts, with the release of harmful elements such as mercury (Hg) into the environment. Mercury, due to its physical–chemical characteristics and the transport elements involved between different environmental matrices, can easily percolate through the soil and reach groundwater. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mercury concentration levels in the Andean region in order to perform a human health risk assessment. For this purpose, 175 water samples were analyzed, of which 9.71% exceeded the maximum permissible limit (MPL) established for drinking water in accordance with Ecuadorian regulations. The risk analysis was conducted by applying two approaches: deterministic and probabilistic. The deterministic approach involves a specific analysis based on the calculation of the risk quotient (HQ) and risk index (HI) for both receptors (adults and children) and scenarios (residential and recreational) considered; the probabilistic approach is based on the use of stochastic simulation techniques. The results obtained from the two approaches show a discrepancy, with the deterministic analysis providing more conservative results; however, they coincide in showing higher risk for the child population; decision-makers could use these results to identify areas to be monitored and plan more detailed investigation plans.

El fenómeno de los sistemas de comercialización de productos agrícolas no es ajeno al contexto del régimen económico empresarial, en donde convergen como actores principales los productores, comerciantes intermediarios y público consumidor. Conocer que la aplicación de los principios del comercio justo permite mejorar el sistema de comercialización del tomate riñón en beneficio de los agricultores de la parroquia Licto (Cantón Riobamba, provincia de Chimborazo), es el objetivo del artículo científico. El estudio fue diseñado con un enfoque mixto cuantitativo y cualitativo, utilizando los métodos deductivo e inductivo, con investigación descriptiva, transversal y no experimental, mediante el uso de una encuesta diseñada como instrumento de estudio de campo, aplicada a 355 productores agrícolas de tomate riñón de una Población Económicamente Activa de 4629 horticultores, que comercializan su producción en la Empresa Pública Municipal Mercado de Productores Agrícolas San Pedro de Riobamba EP-EMMPA (Mercado Mayorista de Riobamba - Ecuador); el estudio realizado durante el segundo semestre del año 2019 fue completado con indagación documental y bibliográfica. Los resultados revelaron que la aplicación de la filosofía del comercio justo permite obtener un adecuado sistema de comercialización de productos agrícolas, en beneficio de los agricultores, el 90% de los cultivadores así lo manifiestan. Se concluye que el comercio justo ayuda a mejorar el sistema de comercialización agrícola y cumplir con los principios de economía social, popular y solidaria, siendo de mucha utilidad para el sector productor agrícola.Palabras clave: Producción, agricultura, comercio, productor, economía, gestión ABSTRACTThe phenomenon of agricultural product marketing systems is not alien to the context of the business economic regime, where producers, intermediary traders and consuming public converge as main actors. Knowing that the application of the principles of fair trade allows to improve the kidney tomato marketing system for the benefit of the farmers of the Licto parish (Canton Riobamba, Chimborazo province), is the objective of the scientific article. The study was designed with a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach, using deductive and inductive methods, with descriptive, cross-sectional and non-experimental research, using a survey designed as a field study instrument, applied to 355 kidney tomato agricultural producers. of an Economically Active Population of 4629 horticulturists, who commercialize their production in the Municipal Public Company Market of Agricultural Producers San Pedro de Riobamba EP-EMMPA (Wholesale Market of Riobamba - Ecuador); The study carried out during the second semester of 2019 was completed with documentary and bibliographic research. The results revealed that the application of the philosophy of fair trade allows obtaining an adequate marketing system for agricultural products, for the benefit of farmers, 90% of growers say so. It is concluded that fair trade helps to improve the agricultural marketing system and comply with the principles of social, popular and solidarity economy, being very useful for the agricultural producing sector.Key words: Production, agriculture, trade, producer, economy, management

The proposal allows to determine that the enterprises contribute to economic development, the present study will allow building a concerted process with the contribution of the capacities and citizen rights in territorial and political-administrative spheres, it will cover the construction of planning units, strategy design and development projects based on local resources, needs and initiatives. This process incorporates the dynamics of sectoral, functional and territorial development, which are undertaken by the State, social organizations and private companies in the territory. The ventures are of integral form; that is, it incorporates in the design of its plans the set of dimensions present in the territory: social, economic, environmental. For this reason, initiating local development projects must allow economic growth, political democracy and social progress to be fostered, so that sustainable human development can be achieved. It is a process that will promote the local government in alliance with other agents, with the purpose of expanding the local economic base, accumulating and capitalizing its surpluses, strengthening the economic fabric and generating the development of a competitive environment, which enables the development of companies, the generation of local employment and fight effectively against poverty.

The financial and commercial education allows a better understanding of the technical tools that favors informal decision making, the development of savings habits and expense planning. This research aims to promote the necessary conditions to increase the levels of financial education in order to improve the management of resources, generating favorable conditions of products and marketing processes that contribute to the productive growth of merchants in the San Pedro de Riobamba Agricultural Producers Market. The methodology is developed with a qualitative and quantitative approach, with a sample size of 195 surveys to obtain results on the degree of financial knowledge of the merchants of the San Pedro de Riobamba Agricultural Producers Market. The results and findings obtained showed that the management of finances is done empirically demonstrating a lack of technical analysis that contributes to the efficient management of finances, generating a scarce financial culture. The relevant conclusions of this research indicate that the needs in terms of Financial Education are essential to improve productivity, profitability and motivate the active participation of processes of transfer of fundamental knowledge of finance.

The supervision of inclusive financial institutions in emerging economies represents a critical challenge for financial stability. While cooperatives and mutualists are pillars of financial inclusion, there is a lack of explainable early warning models adapted to their structural risk profiles. This study evaluates an explainable machine learning framework for early supervision, utilizing a longitudinal dataset covering 584 unique financial institutions (cooperatives and mutualists) with 24,232 monthly observations across the 2018–2024 predictor observation window (yielding 17,799 healthy transition candidate observations and 74 evaluated distress episodes: 68 in the training set and 6 in the out-of-time validation set). Adhering to ISO/IEC 25012 data quality standards and a six-month forecast horizon (T + 6), the performance of an XGBoost-based model was evaluated against traditional logistic regression benchmarks. Given the extreme class imbalance (0.1556% event rate in the out-of-time test set), model utility was assessed primarily through the precision–recall AUC (PR-AUC). The results demonstrate that XGBoost achieved a higher PR-AUC point estimate (0.2466) than the logistic regression benchmark (0.0931) in the 2024 out-of-time validation sample. The use of SHAP explainability revealed distinct risk drivers for cooperatives and mutualists, providing exploratory support for segmented supervisory monitoring. This study proposes an interpretable decision support framework that enables proactive, risk-based prioritization in a dollarized emerging economy.