Mexico is the centre of origin and domestication of more than 130 plant species, most of which are cultivated in traditional agricultural systems (TAS). In recent decades, this abundance has been ...eroded by the expansion of monocultures and commercial seeds, the homogenisation of diets, rural dynamics or the loss of traditional knowledge. From 2019 to 2022, a nationwide project funded by the GEF built and strengthened mechanisms to help conserve agrobiodiversity, and one of the territories chosen was the Purhépecha region (Michoacán). This paper systematises the project's impacts in the TASs of Michoacán and rescues the critical methodological elements that served for its successful implementation. Participatory Action Research was the conceptual approach that guided the work in six communities with more than 600 participants. Successful implementation requires four indispensable elements: trust building, communication, previous experience and conflict management. The social impacts lie in the improved understanding of the agroecological paradigm and the increase of cultivated species and varieties. Participants also improved their income by selling their products in alternative markets and creating six seed houses. Agrobiodiversity conservation requires a social transformation based on actions anchored in the territory, where local actors combine innovation and tradition to ensure generational renewal.
What people eat affects public health and human wellbeing, agricultural production, and environmental sustainability. This paper explores the heterogeneity of food consumption patterns in an ...ecologically and culturally diverse country. Using a latent class approach (which creates clusters of individuals with homogeneous characteristics), we analyse a food questionnaire (from the National Health and Nutrition Survey) applied across Mexico. We identify four clusters of food consumption (staple, prudent, high meat and low fruit) and find that belonging to these clusters is determined by socioeconomic, demographic (age, sex) and geographic (region, urban/rural) characteristics. Maize and pulses tend to constitute a larger proportion of the diet of poor, rural populations living in the south, while urban populations eat more varied foods, including ingredients whose production systems tend to exert more pressure on natural resources (for instance, meat). Despite the importance given in the literature to the Mexican gastronomy and its diverse traditional regional diets, we find that only 6% of the population adopts a food consumption pattern resembling the traditional Mexican diet. Instead, most of the Mexican population has a food consumption pattern resembling a western diet, which is problematic in terms of public health and environmental sustainability.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Certain components of global food security continue to be threatened. Globalization has impacted food patterns, leading to greater homogenization of diets and the standardization of processes of food ...transformation, both in the countryside and in the cities. In Mexico, this has led to a drop in the use of native corn landraces and in the value associated with traditional practices around their growing and the processing and consumption of tortillas. The aim of this work was to analyze the main characteristics of the handmade comal tortilla system along the rural-urban gradient taking into account: (1) The type of seed and production, (2) manufacturing processes, (3) marketing channels and purpose of sales, and (4) perceptions regarding the quality of the product. Research was conducted on 41 handmade tortilla workshops located in rural areas in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin and in urban and peri-urban areas of a medium-sized city in Michoacán (Mexico). Results showed that the origin of the grain follows a gradient-like pattern: In rural areas, tortillas are made with local and native corn predominate, while in urban contexts most tortillas come from hybrid corn produced in Sinaloa or Jalisco. There is a generalized preference for white tortillas, but blue tortillas are used for personal consumption in rural areas and as a gourmet product in the city. 100% of the rural workshops make their own nixtamal, while almost 50% of the peri-urban and urban businesses buy pre-made nixtamal dough. Surprisingly, 50% of the rural handmade tortilla workshops admit that they add nixtamalized corn flour and/or wheat flour to their tortilla mix. We conclude that not all handmade comal tortillas are produced equally and, although in rural areas traditions are better preserved, these also have contradictions. We also conclude that it is important to promote the revaluation of agrobiodiversity, traditional gastronomy, and food security without sacrificing quality, nutrition, and flavor.
Tackling the environmental impacts of food systems can play a crucial role in achieving urban sustainability. Robust accounts of urban food supply must inform policymaking. Current research on urban ...food supply often relies on extrapolating national data sets to the urban scale, obscuring the diversity of food consumption patterns across regions and across the urban-rural divide within countries. One illustration of this is the case of Mexico, where biocultural diversity has shaped diverse diets across the country. In this article, we present a method to estimate urban food supply in the data-scarce context of Mexico City. We combine national data on food supply with food consumption data from a spatially explicit food questionnaire to estimate urban food supply. We estimate the food supply for the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, breaking it down by food group, and present key differences with national-scale data. In particular, consumption of animal products (meat and milk) is higher than the national average, and corn consumption is lower. We conclude that it is crucial to produce precise accounts of urban diets to enable robust analyses of the environmental impacts of urban food supply, and reflect on the limitations and opportunities of our method.
•We evaluate sustainability in three peasant management systems (PMS).•PMS were: the diversified (CRS), the organic (OFS) and the conventional inputs (CCS).•We use 16 multidimensional and short-term ...indicators in two contrasting climate years.•Pest incidence was significantly influenced by management and yields by climate.•CRS and OFS show higher capacity of adaptation to climate variability than CCS.
One of the most important challenges for agriculture is addressing high climatic variability by creating productive, resilient and adaptable systems that are highly efficient in terms of water and energy use and having the aims of neither degrading nor contaminating the environment. In Mexico, these characteristics are fulfilled by many seasonal peasant agricultural systems. Systems utilizing native seeds produce an important portion of white maize for human consumption in addition to safeguarding key agricultural genetic resources. This article evaluates the sustainability of such systems and describes the current challenges and opportunities in a representative peasant community in the watershed of Lago de Pátzcuaro in Mexico. Community farming and livestock management practices were analyzed, and ecological, economic and social indicators were measured over a two-year period. During the first year, low-input systems, which are based on the use of organic fertilizers and crop rotation, provided better results in terms of ecological indicators and equal results in terms of economic and social indicators than those achieved using a high chemical input system. In the second year, which featured early frosts and a winter drought, productivity declined in all systems; however, the most diversified systems (in terms of the maize varieties grown and the sowing of other crops) more successfully resisted these climatic adversities.
Abstract
The
milpa
agroecosystem is an intercropping of maize, beans, squash and other crops, developed in Mesoamerica, and its adoption is widely variable across climates and regions. An example of ...particular interest is the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, which holds highly diverse
milpas
, drawing on ancestral Mayan knowledge. Traditional
milpas
have been described as sustainable resource management models, based on long rotations within a slash-and-burn cycle in forest areas. Nevertheless, due to modernization and intensification processes, new variants of the approach have appeared. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sustainability of three
milpa
systems (traditional, continuous, and mechanized) in four case studies across the Peninsula, with emphasis on food self-sufficiency, social inclusion and adoption of innovations promoted by a development project. The Framework for the Evaluation of Agroecosystems using Indicators (MESMIS, for its Spanish acronym) was used for its flexible, participatory approach. A common group of indicators was developed despite regional differences between study cases, with a high level of farmer participation throughout the iterative process. The results show lower crop yields in traditional systems, but with lower inputs costs and pesticide use. In contrast, continuous
milpas
had higher value in terms of crop diversity, food security, social inclusion, and innovation adoption. Mechanized
milpas
had lower weed control costs. Profitability of cash crops and the proportion of forest were high in all systems. Highly adopted innovations across
milpa
types and study cases included spatial crop arrangement and the use of residues as mulches. However, most innovations are not adapted to local conditions, and do not address climate change. Further, women and youth participation is low, especially in traditional systems.
Food and Nutritional Security (FNS) is still an outstanding problem, and rural areas of Guatemala demonstrate this by an increase in the undernourished population from 1.4 million in 1991 to 2.5 ...million in 2014. Some FNS programs were developed in the past, and our research evaluates the following: (1) the critical points perceived by farmers related to the sustainability of their systems, (2) the performance of FNS program through a set of 7 indicators, and (3) how the FNS levels are related to sustainability indicators among hamlets. We used mixed methods (participatory rural appraisals and 64 semi-structured household surveys) across six hamlets. The most robust 15 indicators were selected through correlation analysis. Two series of five least squares regression models determined that the critical points had significant impacts on economic disparities but failed to explain malnutrition levels. Consequently, we compared two contrasting hamlets according to their energy and protein supply. The results showed that FNS is linked to sustainability as the more self-reliant and equitable community exhibited higher food security. However, FNS depends upon a complex array of self-sufficiency strategies that remain linked to individual household idiosyncrasies.
Farmer field schools (FFSs) emerged in response to the gap left by the worldwide decline in agricultural extension services. With time, this methodology has been adapted to specific rural contexts to ...solve problems related to the sustainability of peasant-farming systems. In this study we draw upon empirical data regarding the peasant-farming system in the Nicaraguan highlands to evaluate whether FFSs have helped communities improve the sustainability of their systems and the food security of their residents using socioeconomic, environmental, and food and nutrition security (FNS) indicators. In order to appreciate the long-term impact, we studied three communities where FFSs were implemented eight, five, and three years ago, respectively, and we included participants and nonparticipants from each community. We found that FFSs have a gradual impact, as there are significant differences between participants and nonparticipants, and it is the community that first implemented FFSs that scores highest. The impact of FFSs is broad and long lasting for indicators related to participation, access to basic services, and conservation of natural resources. Finally, this paper provides evidence that FFSs have the potential to empower farmers; however, more attention needs to be paid to critical indicators like production costs and the use of external inputs in order to scale up their potential in the future.
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