Thirty-Five Years of Changes in Smallholder Maize-Based Farming Systems in Mexico: a Typology Approach
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Thirty-five years of changes in smallholder maize-based farming systems in Mexico: A typology approach Beatriz Alvarado Perry MSc thesis Farming System Ecology Group ii Thirty-five years of changes in smallholder maize-based farming systems in Mexico: A typology approach Student Name: Beatriz Alvarado Perry Registration No.: 880919013130 Study program: MSc Plant Sciences Course name: MSc Thesis Farming Systems Ecology Course code: FSE-80436 Supervisors: dr.ir. WAH (Walter) Rossing MSc. Ivan Pontin Novotny Examiner: dr.ir. FJJA (Felix) Bianchi October 2016 Farming Systems Ecology Group Wageningen University, The Netherlands Cover photo: Santa Catarina Tayata. Credits: Ivan Pontin Novotny iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Walter Rossing for accepting me as his student, for his expertise, guidance and persistent help throughout my project. I am thankful to Dr. Felix Bianchi for accepting to be my co-examiner and for his interest in this project. I also want to sincerely thank MSc Ivan Novotny, for his valuable opinion and encouragement. Gracias carnal! Special thanks also go out to my friends in Mexico, especially to Cristian Reyna and Erick Rebollo, who made the work field so enjoyable. I would also like to thank all the farmers in Santa Catarina Tayata for sharing their valuable time with me, this research would not have been possible without their insight. A special thanks to Jesus Galicia for all the support during the data collection and his wife for preparing those delicious lunches. Thank you to my second family, Silvia de la Rosa and Rolando Moreno for sharing all these adventures with, for helping me to survive the stress and not make me give up. Also, thank you to all that amazing people and friends who made my life more beautiful during these two years in Wageningen. Especially, I would like to thank my dear boyfriend, Tony. For all the strong support he gave me during this journey, for the patience and care, for always giving me words of encouragement and for being there for me all the way, Ik hou van je. Lastly, I want to thank my beloved family. Estoy en gran deuda con ustedes, por darme lo mejor de cada uno de ustedes. Con mi padre Manuel por darme las alas para volar tan alto como mis sueños me lo permitieran. Con mi madre Irma por seguirme dando valiosas lecciones hasta ahora y por siempre elevar una oración para mí. Con mi hermana Adriana por enseñarme que los limites no existen, por tu paciencia y consejos durante estos años. Pero especialmente por enseñarme que la distancia nunca es una barrera para estar unidos. Con mi hermana Edith por siempre estar disponible para sanarme, abrazarme y regalarme tantos momentos de alegría. Gracias Familia por apoyarme a lograr cada una de mis metas y siempre recibirme en casa con amor y cariño. ABSTRACT Ensure sustainability and meet international development goals in regions where smallholder farmers depend on resource bases prone to degradation is one of the challenges policy issues faced today. This is particularly true for Mexican smallholder farmers, who produce on small plots and often do this in a marginal environment. Despite the importance of agriculture for livelihood security of smallholder farmers in rural areas agricultural production has decreased in the entire country. The existence of a link between the decrease of agricultural production and policy changes occurred in Mexico in the late 1980s is topic of debate. Understanding past trajectories of change in farming systems, would shed a light on how did these changes in Mexican agricultural policies affected smallholder farmers, and bring relevant knowledge for further design of innovative and sustainable farming systems to improve farmers´ livelihoods. A participatory typology was developed to characterise the farming systems present thirty-five years ago. The resulting typology was compared with a typology of the present farming systems to trace the changes that occurred in farming systems over time. Results gained in a case study area in a rural community in the southern state of Oaxaca showed six contrasted farm-developed types that could be related with the agricultural policy changes on the 1980s. In regard the changes occurred in farming system, they were classified in four categories (1) Changes on land use and production orientation, in terms of land use land use change communal land for livestock grazing were reduced. In terms of production orientation, milpa system used to be the predominant cropping system for food self-sufficiency and mono-cropping is the salient system; (2) Changes in the type of fertilizers used and equipment employed for farm activities, (3) Wage farm labour has increase and barter labour has decreased (4) Diversification in the source of income. Farmers combine and explore diverse strategies to adapt to changes, therefore, the construction of a participatory typology for the present time is recommended. In order to test the accuracy of the comparative approach, and based on the results obtained improves can be done in the methodology described on this research. Key words: Sustainability, trajectories of agricultural change, typology, rural farmers, Mexico. v Table of Contents CHAPTER 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Changes in agricultural policies ....................................................................................... 2 1.2 Research framework ............................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Objective ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Research question ........................................................................................................... 5 1.5 The case study area ............................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 2. Materials and methods .................................................................................................. 8 2.1 Data Collection .......................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Semi-structured questionnaire .......................................................................................... 8 2.1.2 Timeline construction......................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Current available data ............................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Statistical typology ............................................................................................................. 8 2.4 Data analysis .............................................................................................................................. 9 2.4.1 Procedure to construct the characterisation of the farm systems present thirty-five years ago ..................................................................................................................................... 9 2.4.2 Comparison of the typologies ............................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER 3. Results ........................................................................................................................... 10 3.1 Semi-structured questionnaire ..................................................................................... 10 3.2 timeline construction .................................................................................................... 13 3.3 Participatory typology ................................................................................................... 14 3.4 Comparison of the statistical and participatory typologies. ............................................... 16 3.4 Farming systems trajectories ........................................................................................ 18 CHAPTER 4. DISCUSSION AND RECOMENDATIONS ......................................................................... 22 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 25 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................... 26 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................... 29 Appendix 1 . ............................................................................................................................... 29 Appendix 2 . ............................................................................................................................... 30 vi List of figures Figure 1. Representation on how changes in agricultural policies impacted smallholder farmers. 4 Figure 2.Geographical location of Santa Catarina Tayata municipality ............................................. 6 Figure 3. General timeline description of the changes experienced in Santa Catarina Tayata ....... 13 Figure 4. A) Graphical representation of the transition of the farms in the community over the last thirty-five years. B) Vertical spider web representation of the traceability of the farming systems trajectories. ...................................................................................................................