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Project properties |
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| Title | Citizen science to document farmers’ adaptation to environmental change: The case of coffee agroforestry systems in Mexico
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| Group | Farming Systems Ecology |
| Project type | internship |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Vivian Valencia |
| Examiner(s) | Rogier Schulte |
| Contact info | v.valencia@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2019/05/01 |
| End date | 2019/08/31 |
| Description | (Background: from project rationale)
While science and policy-making try to deliver solutions to help farmers adapt to environmental change, farmers are already conducting their own field experiments to identify adaptation strategies. Since 2013, a fungus called coffee leaf rust (CLR) is devastating Arabica coffee production in Latin America. Governments and other private and non-profit organizations have attempted to support farmers by distributing hybrid coffee varieties (HCV). In Mexico and other regions, farmers were told that HCV could be cultivated under full sun. When farmers tried it, it failed. Due to lack of accurate information on these relatively new HCV, farmers have been conducting their own experiments, growing plants under different degrees of shade and documenting outcomes on plant growth and productivity. The aim of this project is to document farmers’ observations to systematize the knowledge that they are developing. Because most of the information on HCV was produced under experimental conditions in research centres, there may be a mismatch in our knowledge of how HCV perform under variable field conditions. Farmers’ experiments will help us start identifying the best management practices for HCV. This is crucial to spread accurate information that may help farmers in Latin America adapt their coffee farms to CLR, a form of environmental change. The internee will travel to a coffee farming community in La Sepultura Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico. The internee will interview farmers (already identified in a prior study) who are conducting experiments in their fields and patios. The use of “citizen science” as a methodological framework will be discussed with internee. The internee will develop a survey to capture information on experimental conditions such as coffee plant variety, degree of shade, use of inputs, use of irrigation, plant age, yields, and so on. After conducting field work, the internee will analyse collected data to estimate optimal correlations between shade, plant health, and yields. The results will be written in a short paper for publication. This project connects to an on going research project: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327499781_Smallholder_response_to_environmental_change_Impacts_of_coffee_leaf_rust_in_a_forest_frontier_in_Mexico |
| Used skills | Interpersonal and social skills to establish working relationships with farmers |
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