Tag: Small Scale Farmers
Between ‘moral economy’ and ‘social banditry’: harvest theft in a peasant community
This article studies avocado theft in southern Turkey’s peasant communities, where a significant avocado market formed between 2010 and 2020. In the context of the country’s neoliberalized agricultural regime, avocado as a ‘high-value food’ became a lucrative alternative for farmers struggling with decreasing profits from traditional crops. This new market economically benefited larger farmers, while smallholders, hampered by market liberalization policies of the preceding decade, were
Forest cover change and land tenure change in Mexico’s avocado region: Is community forestry related to reduced deforestation for high value crops?
Forest cover change in highland pine-oak forests of Michoacan, Mexico is due to a process of conversion of natural forests to avocado orchards. Privately-owned avocado orchards are found on land that was common forest before the 1992 Reform of the Mexican Constitution. We ask how forest cover change was facilitated by policy changes that affected land tenure rules and existing community forestry programs. We use a comparative case study of four communities, an analysis of forest cover change, and
Ecological and human dimensions of avocado expansion in México: Towards supply-chain sustainability
Avocados have become a global commodity, and environmental and socioeconomic impacts in the regions where avocados are grown have increased in tandem with production. In this article, we synthesize the current state of knowledge about the impacts of avocado production in Michoacán, México, the global center of avocado production. Environmental impacts on biodiversity, soil, and hydrological systems stem from deforestation and forest fragmentation that result from avocado expansion. The avocado
Socio-Environmental Impacts of the Avocado Boom in the Meseta Purépecha, Michoacán, Mexico
The rapid expansion of avocado orchards in the Meseta Purépecha, in the state of Michoacán in central Mexico, has mostly been driven by the increasing demand of North American consumers in the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While the cultivation of avocado has produced regional economic growth, economic profits are strongly concentrated, notably in the hands of American agribusiness, while its regional and local environmental impacts increasingly affect indigenous and
Spatial patterns and determinants of avocado frontier dynamics in Mexico
The surging demand for commodity crops has led to rapid and severe agricultural frontier expansion globally and has put producing regions increasingly under pressure. However, knowledge about spatial patterns of agricultural frontier dynamics, their leading spatial determinants, and socio-ecological trade-offs is often lacking, hindering contextualized decision making towards more sustainable food systems. Here, we used inventory data to map frontier dynamics of avocado production, a cash crop of
Analysis of costs and competitiveness in avocado production in Michoacán, Mexico
[The] process of globalization has forced avocado producers in Michoacán to improve their competitiveness, be more efficient and control their production costs to adapt to market demands. Cost accounting provides data to monitor the activities of a company, provides tools for making corrective decisions and achieve goals, to maintain or increase profits production costs, profitability and competitiveness of three representative production units (URP) avocado, two of export and for domestic market