Vulnerability to Cumulative Hazards: Coping with the Coffee Leaf Rust Outbreak, Drought, and Food Insecurity in Nicaragua

Bacon, Christopher M.; Sundstrom, William A.; Stewart, Iris T.; Beezer, David

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.12.025

Cited by 76 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Similarly, the planting of fruit trees has been reported as a means of reducing food insecurity of farmers under changing climatic conditions [49,63]. However, other practices being used by smallholder farmers in our study landscapes, such as the increased use of fertilizers and agrochemicals to ensure yields under adverse climatic conditions, are resource-intensive solutions that are short-term fixes that are unlikely to contribute to climate resilience and could even be counterproductive to long-term adaptation efforts [15].…”

Section: (244)mentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Most farmers (87.2%) also reported having been affected by at least one extreme weather event during the last decade, and many considered that the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events were increasing, as is also suggested by projections from climate models [30]. Smallholder farmers are keenly aware of changing climatic conditions because they plan their planting, management, and harvesting activities in response to seasonal rainfall patterns [15,41,49]. They also see visible impacts of extreme temperatures, droughts, or torrential rains on plant growth, flowering, coffee berry ripening, and pest and disease incidence [25,26,50].…”

Section: Climate Change Perceptions Impacts and Responses Of Smallhmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are an estimated 2.3 million smallholder farmers in Central America [12], many of whom farm on steep lands with thin soils, are poor, and suffer seasonal food insecurity [13][14][15]. Two common smallholder farming systems in the region are basic grain (maize and beans) and small-scale coffee production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: (244)mentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Climate Change Perceptions Impacts and Responses Of Smallhmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

et al. 2018

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“…Our analysis shows that more than 60% of the reviewed studies do not explicitly specify the type of drought hazard that is addressed and re-confirms that a broad variety of definitions of drought vulnerability and risk are used. This creates not only terminological and taxonomic confusion when operationalized in assessments, but also complicates the comparability of assessments and their outcomes-a gap that has also been emphasized in previous studies (Ebi and Bowen 2016, Bacon et al 2017. While context is crucial and other operational definitions of risk may be more appropriate depending on region and purpose (Wilhite 2000), providing a definition is important for producing scientifically rigorous and comparable work.…”

Section: Conceptual Gaps and Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought vulnerability and risk assessments: state of the art, persistent gaps, and research agenda

Hagenlocher

Meza

Anderson

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

195

145

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Reducing the social, environmental, and economic impacts of droughts and identifying pathways towards drought resilient societies remains a global priority. A common understanding of the drivers of drought risk and ways in which drought impacts materialize is crucial for improved assessments and for the identification and (spatial) planning of targeted drought risk reduction and adaptation options. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed an increase in drought risk assessments across spatial and temporal scales drawing on a multitude of conceptual foundations and methodological approaches. Recognizing the diversity of approaches in science and practice as well as the associated opportunities and challenges, we present the outcomes of a systematic literature review of the state of the art of people-centered drought vulnerability and risk conceptualization and assessments, and identify persisting gaps. Our analysis shows that, of the reviewed assessments, (i) more than 60% do not explicitly specify the type of drought hazard that is addressed, (ii) 42% do not provide a clear definition of drought risk, (iii) 62% apply static, index-based approaches, (iv) 57% of the indicatorbased assessments do not specify their weighting methods, (v) only 11% conduct any form of validation, (vi) only ten percent develop future scenarios of drought risk, and (vii) only about 40% of the assessments establish a direct link to drought risk reduction or adaptation strategies, i.e. consider solutions. We discuss the challenges associated with these findings for both assessment and identification of drought risk reduction measures, and identify research needs to inform future research and policy agendas in order to advance the understanding of drought risk and support pathways towards more drought resilient societies.

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“…This is an important gap as responses often deviate from modeled scenarios [17]. Not only are adaptations to climate extremes closely conditioned by social, institutional, and material conditions that can be impossible to measure or model in abstract [18,19], coping or responding to one stressor can also change how individuals are positioned to respond to another [20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flooding and Land Use Change in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

Kelley

Prabowo²

2019

Land

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Flooding is a routine occurrence throughout much of the monsoonal tropics. Despite well-developed repertoires of response, agrarian societies have been 'double exposed' to intensifying climate change and agro-industrialization over the past several decades, often in ways that alter both the regularity of flood events and individual and community capacity for response. This paper engages these tensions by exploring everyday experiences of and responses to extreme flood events in a case study village in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, which has also been the site of corporate oil palm development since 2010. We first reconstruct histories of extreme flood events along the Konawe'eha River using oral histories and satellite imagery, describing the role of these events in straining the terms of daily production and reproduction. We then outline the ways smallholder agriculturalists are responding to flood events through alterations in their land use strategies, including through the sale or leasing of flood-prone lands, the relocation of riverine vegetable production to hillside locations, and adoption of new cropping choices and management practices. We highlight the role of such responses as a driver of ongoing land use change, potentially in ways that increase systemic vulnerability to floods moving forward.

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Vulnerability to Cumulative Hazards: Coping with the Coffee Leaf Rust Outbreak, Drought, and Food Insecurity in Nicaragua

Cited by 76 publications

References 52 publications

Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

Drought vulnerability and risk assessments: state of the art, persistent gaps, and research agenda

Flooding and Land Use Change in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

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