Correlates of Maize Land and Livelihood Change Among Maize Farming Households in Mexico

Eakin, Hallie; Appendini, Kirsten; Sweeney, Stuart; Perales, Hugo

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.12.012

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…A recent survey of Central American policy makers reported that the lack of scientific information on climate change impacts on smallholder farmers is a major constraint to the development of agricultural adaptation policies [10]. While the scientific literature on climate change impacts on smallholder farmers has rapidly expanded in recent years [e.g., 18,[38][39][40], there is still little information on how climate change impacts and adaptation strategies vary across different smallholder farming systems and landscapes and the extent to which adaptation strategies need to be tailored to different smallholder contexts. There is also a lack of information on how smallholder maize and bean farmers in Central America are being affected by climate change (but see 40, 41 for information from Mexico), despite their importance for food security and poverty alleviation efforts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

et al. 2018

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Background: Smallholder farmers are one of the most vulnerable groups to climate change, yet efforts to support farmer adaptation are hindered by the lack of information on how they are experiencing and responding to climate change. More information is needed on how different types of smallholder farmers vary in their perceptions and responses to climate change, and how to tailor adaptation programs to different smallholder farmer contexts. We surveyed 860 smallholder coffee and basic grain (maize/bean) farmers across six Central American landscapes to understand farmer perceptions of climate change and the impacts they are experiencing, how they are changing their agricultural systems in response to climate change, and their adaptation needs.Results: Almost all (95%) of the surveyed smallholder farmers have observed climate change, and most are already experiencing impacts of rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and extreme weather events on crop yields, pest and disease incidence, income generation and, in some cases, food security. For example, 87% of maize farmers and 66% of coffee farmers reported negative impacts of climate change on crop production, and 32% of all smallholder farmers reported food insecurity following extreme weather events. Of the farmers perceiving changes in climate, 46% indicated that they had changed their farming practices in response to climate change, with the most common adaptation measure being the planting of trees. There was significant heterogeneity among farmers in the severity of climate change impacts, their responses to these impacts, and their adaptation needs. This heterogeneity likely reflects the wide diversity of socioeconomic and biophysical contexts across smallholder farms and landscapes. Conclusions:Our study demonstrates that climate change is already having significant adverse impacts on smallholder coffee and basic grain farmers across the Central American region. There is an urgent need for governments, donors and practitioners to ramp up efforts to help smallholder farmers cope with existing climate impacts and build resiliency to future changes. Our results also highlight the importance of tailoring of climate adaptation policies and programs to the diverse socioeconomic conditions, biophysical contexts, and climatic stresses that smallholder farmers face.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

et al. 2018

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“…A key reason for this is that, for campesinos, maize is a 'multi-functional' crop with great cultural importance [13,28], providing a broad scope of benefits, such as food for self-consumption and food security [25,29,30], a diverse gastronomy and multiple products [29,31], and opportunities to participate in local and regional markets to generate income [23,25,32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary and food supply implications of ongoing maize domestication by Mexicancampesinos

et al. 2018

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Maize evolution under domestication is a process that continues today. Case studies suggest that Mexican smallholder family farmers, known as , contribute importantly to this, but their significance has not been explicitly quantified and analysed as a whole. Here, we examine the evolutionary and food security implications of the scale and scope under which produce maize. We gathered official municipal-level data on maize production under rainfed conditions and identified agriculture as occurring in municipalities with average yields of less than or equal to 3 t ha Environmental conditions vary widely in those municipalities and are associated with a great diversity of maize races, representing 85.3% of native maize samples collected in the country. We estimate that in those municipalities, around 1.38 × 10 genetically different individual plants are subjected to evolution under domestication each season. This implies that 5.24 × 10 mother plants contribute to the next generation with their standing genetic diversity and rare alleles. Such a large breeding population size also increases the total number of adaptive mutations that may appear and be selected for. We also estimate that agriculture could potentially feed around 54.7 million people in Mexico. These analyses provide insights about the contributions of smallholder agriculture around the world.

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“…This means traditional and indigenous small-scale farmers are also the custodians of native maize biodiversity. Maize farming and the conservation of the biodiversity of native varieties have, however, been significantly affected by changing Mexican policies over recent years (Appendini and Liverman 1994;Eakin et al 2015). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, for example, Mexican agricultural polices went from being protectionist towards opening up for commercial farming and international trade (Sweeney et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The small-scale farmers, who historically created and maintained agrobiodiversity, therefore saw their previous access to state subsidies and credits decrease (Sweeney et al 2013). In addition, CONASUPO (the national institute in charge of regulating grain trade and assuring a market for small-scale maize farmers) was dissolved in 1998, leaving small-scale farmers unprotected against competition from large-scale commercial farming (Eakin et al 2015). To be competitive and access governmental support, some small-scale farmers changed their traditional farming system to that of the modern model of industrialized agriculture by planting high-yielding hybrid seeds in monocultures dependent on agrochemicals (Pérez-García and del Castillo 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The farmers who remained small scale not only faced new competition from larger-scale growers, but also had to deal with serious droughts. This provoked continuous losses for farmers whose plots were primarily rainfed and brought bankruptcy to thousands of farmers (Eakin et al 2015). Many farmers migrated and abandoned their land during this time to look for other ways to generate their families' livelihoods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bridging different perspectives for biocultural conservation: art-based participatory research on native maize conservation in two indigenous farming communities in Oaxaca, Mexico

López

Wickson

Hausner

2019

Environ Dev Sustain

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Native maize conservation rests on the custody of traditional and indigenous small-scale farmers, but their traditional practices and way of life are challenged by multiple forces associated with globalization, international trade and neoliberal agricultural policies. Through participatory art-based research with two indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, we identified the main challenges and strategies for native maize conservation, as perceived by these farming communities. We implemented a stepwise method to elicit local strategies for biocultural conservation pertinent across gender and generations. We conclude that understanding the heterogeneity of perspectives is important for identifying root causes of agrobiodiversity decline and strategies for biocultural native maize conservation.

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Correlates of Maize Land and Livelihood Change Among Maize Farming Households in Mexico

Cited by 28 publications

References 35 publications

Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

Evolutionary and food supply implications of ongoing maize domestication by Mexicancampesinos

Bridging different perspectives for biocultural conservation: art-based participatory research on native maize conservation in two indigenous farming communities in Oaxaca, Mexico

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