Colombian agriculture under multiple exposures: a review and research agenda

Abstract

We adopt the multiple exposures framework to review the existing literature on the impacts of climate change, trade liberalisation, and violent conflict on Colombian agriculture. These stressors act simultaneously but policies address them separately, overlooking the root causes of vulnerability. We find that the expected impacts of the single stressors have been relatively well documented, but that limited research has been dedicated to the observed effects of these three stressors and to their interactions. We propose a research agenda in three themes: trade-offs; social mechanisms; and governance. This agenda can inform not only agricultural adaptation but the debate on alternative agricultural development models.Resumen: En este artículo se utilizó el marco de exposición múltiple para revisar la literatura existente sobre el impacto que el cambio climático, la liberalización del comercio y los conflictos violentos tienen sobren la agricultura en Colombia. A pesar de que hay evidencia de que estos tres estresores actúan simultáneamente los discursos políticos respectivos tienden a proceder de forma separada. Asimismo, como estos discursos están dominados por un énfasis principalmente técnico, los procesos sociales, políticos y económicos que sustentan los sectores o unidades agrícolas vulnerables son generalmente desestimados. Esto se traduce en políticas de desarrollo rural y ambiental que no reconocen las complejidades propias de las dinámicas socio-ecológicas. En este artículo se sintetizaron los conocimientos existentes y se identificaron puntos clave, como por ejemplo cultivos, departamentos o sistemas de unidades agrícolas que parecen estar simultáneamente expuestos a los tres estresores previamente mencionados. Se mostró que los impactos tanto observados como esperados generados individualmente por cada estresor han sido relativamente bien documentados en la literatura existente, mientras que escasa literatura se ha desarrollado sobre las formas en que estos estresores interacciones entre si. Finalmente se identificaron tres importantes temas que, bajo un marco de exposición múltiple, deben ser incluidos en una agenda de investigación agrícola en Colombia: compensaciones mutuas, mecanismos sociales y gobernanza. De esta forma, la agenda agrícola podría no sólo informar sobre medidas de adaptación para la agricultura, si no que proponer una reconsideración de modelos alternativos para el desarrollo agrícola a la luz de un conocimiento profundo de la dinámica de los diversos sistemas agrícolas colombianos. Palabras clave: Agricutura, Colombia, Cambio climatico, Liberalización del comercio, Conflicto, Exposición multiple. Feola, G., Agudelo Vanegas, L.A., Contesse Bamón, B.P., 2014. Colombian agriculture under multiple exposures: a review and research agenda. Climate and Development 1-15.

Societal transformation in response to global environmental change: A review of emerging concepts

“…On the backdrop of decades of violent conflict, the country is experiencing the increasing effects of climate change and variability, exacerbated by pressures from global markets; the latter being increased by a recent round of trade liberalization agreements between Colombia and such major global players in the agriculture sector as the European Union and the United States of America (Feola et al 2014). Smallholding farms dominate the rural Andes, where they employ up to 95% of the agricultural workforce, and they provide a substantial proportion of the food consumed in rural and urban areas alike.…”

“…Smallholding farms dominate the rural Andes, where they employ up to 95% of the agricultural workforce, and they provide a substantial proportion of the food consumed in rural and urban areas alike. It is unclear whether these farming communities have the capacity to adapt to the magnitude and pace of the aforementioned pressures, despite the centuries-long history in the area of adaptation to such difficult environments (Feola et al 2014).…”

“…Such strategies hardly recognize the diversity of the Colombian cultural and environmental landscapes, and they ignore the root causes of smallholder vulnerability, which do not necessarily lie in a lack of information or technology, but rather in the lack of access to credit and land (Colombia has one of the most inequitable land distributions in the world), uncertain land property rights, weak social networks (especially in rural areas as a legacy of violent conflict), and social, political, and geographical exclusion of rural communities whose contributions to the country's food security, economy, and identity have been underplayed for decades (Feola 2013;Feola et al 2014).…”

Resilience in the rural Andes: critical dynamics, constraints and emerging opportunities

“…Compared with the surrounding lowlands, the Andes are more strongly affected by climate variability, which is closely tied to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (Vuille et al 2000;Garreaud and Aceituno 2001), and climate change as indicated by the widespread melting of glaciers and hydrological changes observed in recent decades (Magrin et al 2014). In addition, rural Andean communities are often marginalised (Forero and Ezpeleta 2007;Feola et al 2015) and, as such, excluded from decision-making processes that mainly take place in national capital cities, reflecting widespread rural-urban disparities. Physical remoteness, together with cultural, social, political and economic marginality, often promoted by urban elites, not only results in poor access to information or financial and technical resources; it also leads to limited accessibility to these communities during emergencies caused by natural disasters.…”

“…Since the 1970s neoliberal development policies, including trade liberalisation, have been implemented at their strongest intensity in Andean countries and throughout Latin America (Liverman and Vilas 2006;Cupples 2013), generally causing conflicts, displacement and dispossession among rural people, in particular smallholder farmers, indigenous communities and Afro-American populations (Borras et al 2012;Feola et al 2015). Neoliberal policies have often reinforced inequality and reproduced extractivist dynamics that have affected Andean ecosystems and people since colonial times (Cupples 2013).…”