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This article documents and analyzes the historical process of agricultural intensification in Bolivia's Tipajara watershed. There is a particular focus on the recent rise and decline of a commercial onion monoculture. An econometric model indicates altered livelihood patterns as an outcome of the combination of rising costs for pesticides and declining yields from disease. Reliance on pesticides and a failure to rotate crops has led to an increase in the incidence of disease-causing organisms, which has resulted in a collapse of the onion economy in the Tipajara watershed. Emigration is currently the primary strategy employed by smallholder farmers as a response to the collapsing agricultural economy.

Rural Paraguay presents interesting opportunities for investigating the subtle differences in the use of medicinal plants across seasons and the urban versus rural dichotomy in a local setting. This study investigates three aspects of plant-based medicinal use in rural Paraguay: 1) seasonal differences and 2) differences between urban and rural residents and 3) the source of medicinal plants used to treat thirteen common ailments. Interviews performed in January through March 2015 and repeated in June through August 2015 revealed small differences between seasons and between places of residence but a larger homogeneity in the two populations, a homogeneity that stems from the recent migration of urban residents from nearby rural communities. We also found that the important cultural and preventive medicinal use of plant-based additions to yerba mate contributes to the similarities between the urban and rural populations. The findings suggest the continued strength of medicinal plant use going into the near future.

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We assessed the spatial distribution of Copernicia alba Morong. In the study area, a lowland palm savanna floodplain, C. alba is the only overstory species. We hypothesized C. alba would be randomly distributed within natural stands. Palms were tallied in six randomly located 0.25 ha plots and analyzed using a first-order, Ripley's K function to assess the distribution of juvenile, adult, and total palm populations. While the total population had either aggregated or random distributions, when analyzing juvenile and adult population separately, we found juveniles were consistently more aggregated than the adults.

Patronato de Nutrición introduced a range of 18 optional agricultural technologies in the indigenous community of Chalite, Panama. Three of the technologies were adopted by more than half of the farmers surveyed, while an additional eight technologies were adopted by between 20 per cent and 50 per cent of the farmers. Farmers were more likely to adopt technologies associated with familiar crops, previously promoted by other groups, or requiring limited labour or financial resources. The article shows how development groups can quickly reduce the number of technologies promoted in order to deliver services more effectively. KEY WORDS: Labour and livelihoods; Gender and diversity; Methods; Technology; Latin America and the CaribbeanThe development literature includes a substantial body of work on both participatory project design and the adoption of new technologies (see, for example, Chambers et al. 1989;Feder et al. 1985;Pannell 1999). Ideally, those responsible for implementing a development project enter a community, assess the resources available, and work with the community to understand its needs, develop an appropriate strategy, and help the community to reach its goals. However, many projects are designed and developed in advance, without adequate community involvement. Funding agencies may require a detailed plan, or an agency may be implementing a uniform plan in a large number of communities; both strategies reduce community involvement. In any such less than ideal circumstances, a community is faced with a new development programme and must react to the new situation as best it can.This article examines how the Ngobe indigenous community in Chalite, Panama responded to an integrated agricultural project introduced by Patronato de Nutrición. The senior author spent two years working with the community and observing the progress of the programme. At the two-year mark a survey was conducted to evaluate the successes and failures. We conclude that several underlying factors help to identify the components that are more likely to succeed, and we show how an on-going evaluation programme could help Patronato de Nutrición to customise its work for each community.