Participants:Dr. Hallie Eakin (P.I), Arizona State University, Tempe, U.S.
Dr. Stuart Sweeney, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S. Dr. Doug Steigerwald, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S. Dr. Kirsten Appendini, El Colegio de México, Mexico City, México Dr. Hugo Perales, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, San Cristobal de las Casas, México Amy Lerner, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S. Candida Dewes, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S. Frank Davenport, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S. Chrissie Bausch, Arizona State University, Tempe, U.S. Duration: 2008-2011 |
Market Integration and Climate as Drivers of Change in the Mexican Maize System: Multi-Scale Interactions in Livelihood and Land-Use Change
Understanding the sensitivity of food systems to global change is limited by high uncertainty associated with the cross-scale interactions between the natural environment and the cultural landscape. Defining "what might be" within a suite of plausible futures requires a baseline scenario that captures the factors that are most significant in shaping decisions at different levels of governance and, in addition, that highlights the current, changing, and interacting sensitivities of the system to stressors associated with climate change and economic and cultural globalization. This project will create such a baseline by assessing the drivers and evolving social outcomes of one of the world's most important food systems: the Mexican maize system. Building on prior research that 1) anticipates climate change will have negative impacts on Mexican maize production and 2) states that the globalization of agricultural markets is challenging the future of maize in Mexico, an interdisciplinary team of social and biophysical scientists will investigate Mexican agricultural vulnerability in terms of a complex food system. In this system, individual decisions to plant or not plant maize are hypothesized to manifest as landscape scale transformations. The research team expects that price signals at multiple scales (global to regional) and climatic variability will affect local food production and land use outcomes differently across the Mexican landscape. These differences are expected to be a function of regionally-specific cultural, economic, demographic, ecological, and political factors. The project involves: a) a description of the changing national geography of maize production and the associated socioeconomic, institutional, and demographic correlates; b) an analysis of climate trends and variability as related to maize production, yields, and water availability for irrigated farming; c) an econometric analysis of the spatial patterns of maize price volatility in three maize-producing states in order to evaluate the contribution of maize price volatility to farm-level risk; and d) an evaluation of the drivers (e.g., prices and climate) and outcomes (land use, perceptions of food quality, and household maize expenditures) of maize abandonment / persistence at the farm-level through case studies in the states of Sinaloa, Mexico and Chiapas. This project will use a combination of approaches including exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), econometrics analysis (spatial, time-series, and spatial panels), agro-climatic analyses, and household livelihood surveys.
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Publications:
Appendini, K. and Quijada, M. G. 2015. Consumption strategies in rural households: pursuing food security with quality. Agriculture and Human Values. (in press)
Eakin, H., Perales R., H., Appendini, K., & Sweeney, S. 2014. Selling maize in Mexico: The persistence of peasant farming in an era of global markets. Development and Change, 40, 133-155.
Lerner, A. M., Sweeney, S., & Eakin, H. 2014. Growing buildings in corn fields: Urban expansion and the persistence of maize in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, Mexico. Urban Studies, 51 (10), 2185-2201.
Appendini, K. 2014. Reconstructing the maize market in rural Mexico. Journal of Agrarian Change 14: 1-25.
Lerner, A. M., Eakin, H., & Sweeney, S. 2013. Understanding peri-urban livelihoods through an examination of maize production in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, Mexico. Journal of Rural Studies, 30, 52-63.
Sweeney, S.; Steigerwald, D.; Davenport, F.; and Eakin, H. 2013. Mexican maize production: Evolving organizational and spatial structures since 1980. Applied Geography, 39, 78-92.
Lerner, A.; and Eakin, H. 2012. An obsolete dichotomy? Rethinking the rural-urban interface in terms of food security and production in the global south. Geographical Journal 177, 311-320
Lerner, Amy M. and Kirsten Appendini 2011. Dimensions of peri-urban maize production in the Toluca-Atlacomulco valley, Mexico. The Journal of Latin American Geography 10: 87-106.
Eakin, H., Perales R., H., Appendini, K., & Sweeney, S. 2014. Selling maize in Mexico: The persistence of peasant farming in an era of global markets. Development and Change, 40, 133-155.
Lerner, A. M., Sweeney, S., & Eakin, H. 2014. Growing buildings in corn fields: Urban expansion and the persistence of maize in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, Mexico. Urban Studies, 51 (10), 2185-2201.
Appendini, K. 2014. Reconstructing the maize market in rural Mexico. Journal of Agrarian Change 14: 1-25.
Lerner, A. M., Eakin, H., & Sweeney, S. 2013. Understanding peri-urban livelihoods through an examination of maize production in the Toluca Metropolitan Area, Mexico. Journal of Rural Studies, 30, 52-63.
Sweeney, S.; Steigerwald, D.; Davenport, F.; and Eakin, H. 2013. Mexican maize production: Evolving organizational and spatial structures since 1980. Applied Geography, 39, 78-92.
Lerner, A.; and Eakin, H. 2012. An obsolete dichotomy? Rethinking the rural-urban interface in terms of food security and production in the global south. Geographical Journal 177, 311-320
Lerner, Amy M. and Kirsten Appendini 2011. Dimensions of peri-urban maize production in the Toluca-Atlacomulco valley, Mexico. The Journal of Latin American Geography 10: 87-106.