Vulnerability of smallholder agriculture in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico

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The susceptibility and capacity to recover after a time of stress was evaluated with an ex-ante and ex-post hurricane (Isidore of September 2002) response by farming households in Calakmul, Mexico. Interviews and plot measurements of maize and jalapeño pepper were applied for two non-continuous agricultural cycles (1999-2000; 2002-2003) in four households of subsistence oriented agriculture (HSA) and four households of commercial agriculture (HCA). Quantified inputs were family labor in tilling, weeding, harvesting, wage labor, and time to sow the plots. Output measurements were grain and pepper production and sales of cash crops. While both subsistence and commercially oriented households had similar investments and crop production before the hurricane, vulnerability after the hurricane differed between the two household strategies (HSA and HCA). HSA families' resilient strategy consisted of both an investment of more household labor ex-post hurricane, and an early sowing period for crop staples (maize and beans). As a result HSA families obtained higher maize crop yields and similar economic profitability pre- and post- hurricane as compared with HCA families. In contrast, HCA families delayed planting maize in order to recover their economic investment, resulting in less production for own consumption and therefore higher vulnerability. eng

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