Abstract
Over the last decade, historically low market prices for Coffea arabica have affected smallholder shade coffee-growing households throughout northern Latin America. In an effort to better understand household response to the coffee crisis and associated landscape changes, this paper examines agricultural production choices and land use patterns among Huastec Maya coffee-growing households. Using data compiled from 47 household interviews, I describe the cultural-geographical landscape in which the Huastec Maya land use system is embedded. In addition, I examine the economics of household production through a financial cost-benefit analysis and through an exploration of the relationship between land availability and land use patterns. Results show that economic inputs and returns from agriculture are highly variable, and that, in 2001, coffee cultivation was not a viable cash-generating strategy for most households. Land availability was found to have a significant effect on land use decisions, especially the proportion of land area devoted to fallow. Most importantly, however, the case study suggests that a purely economic approach does not suffice in explaining why the Huastec Maya continued to grow coffee in 2001, after years of low prices. Household production choices and livelihood strategies must also be viewed within a cultural context.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the people of San Isidro for welcoming me into their “coffee forest.” I am indebted to William E. Doolittle, Kenneth R. Young, Lisa M. Curran, and Julie Velásquez Runk for their suggestions and comments on this paper. I also thank Beryl Simpson, Blanca León, Rodrigo Sierra, and Paul F. Hudson for their assistance in writing the thesis from which this paper was developed. Financial support for the research was received from the Department of Geography and the Environment (Donald D. Brand Pre-dissertation Fellowship), the Study Abroad Office (International Education Fee Scholarship), the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (E.D. Farmer Fellowship), all of the University of Texas at Austin, and the Tinker Foundation.
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Ponette-González, A.G. 2001: A Household Analysis of Huastec Maya Agriculture and Land Use at the Height of the Coffee Crisis. Hum Ecol 35, 289–301 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9091-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-006-9091-4