Subsistence migration: Smallholder food security and the maintenance of agriculture through mobility in Nicaragua

Abstract

Research on Central American migration has revealed the importance of journeys to the global North for rural sending communities. The outcomes of south–south journeys to nearby countries are less explored, although they are commonplace. We examine Nicaraguan rural residents’ migration to other Central American countries, especially El Salvador, to understand this migration's impacts on agricultural systems and food security. Based on mixed‐methods fieldwork in north‐western Nicaragua, we find that rather than produce remittance landscapes, or an abandonment of agriculture, south–south migration is linked to the maintenance of small‐scale agricultural systems and thus food production. “Subsistence migration,” or mobility to maintain small‐scale agriculture as a food security strategy, draws attention to how these less explored forms of migration in Central America help families to persist in agriculture in a context of worsening environmental and structural conditions.

The Slow Displacement of Smallholder Farming Families: Land, Hunger, and Labor Migration in Nicaragua and Guatemala

“…Thus, what our findings demonstrate for the Nicaraguan and Guatemalan sites is that slow displacement, manifest as this insufficient land for farming livelihoods, results in seasonal hunger. Our research suggests, as we also have demonstrated for the Somtillo case with findings published elsewhere [3], that migrant households in both sites employ earnings from migration to persevere in semi-subsistence agricultural production. While migration mitigates hunger for some migrant households, food insecurity persists for many families, even for many of those engaging in migration or receiving remittances.…”

“…By the time the cooperatives were broken up, according to one farmer, "The most anyone had was 2 0.7 hectares. 3 Guatemalan Quetzal, with an exchange rate of 1 GTQ = 0.13 USD. about 20 manzanas, the rest of us had 10 or 8.…”

“…For migrant households in Somotillo, earnings from migration go directly into food production, bolstering semi-subsistence, small-scale agriculture, through the purchase of inputs and the payment of land rents. As we have argued elsewhere, this subsistence migration is used as a strategy to continue engagement in local agricultural systems, and to ultimately produce food [3], even as farming families continue to be food insecure.…”

“…Members of rural Central American families are regularly faced with the decision to leave their communities to search for work abroad [1,2]. The root causes of these individuals' migration are complex, with insufficient land access as one the most pressing underlying causes [3,4]. Farming families are often unable to produce or buy enough food, which renders them food insecure [5,6].…”

Moving in and out of vulnerability: Interrogating migration as an adaptation strategy along a rural–urban continuum in India

“…From a livelihoods perspective, migration is “one of a set of strategies that households and communities use to diversify and support well‐being” (De Haan, , p. 4), manage risks and buffer incomes (Black et al, ; Carte et al, ; Deshingkar, ; Tacoli, ), and realise personal aspirations (de Haas, ; Punch & Sugden, ). This recognises the multiple contextual drivers of migration that traverse micro‐ (individual and household), meso‐ (socio‐economic features of source and destination areas), and macro‐ (national and international policy landscape) scales (Adger et al, ).…”