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Agricultural Intensification, Market Participation, and Household Demography in the Peruvian Andes

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Abstract

The causes of agricultural intensification in a peasant community in the north central Andes are explored using a methodology derived from the tradition of Systems Ecology. Hypotheses derived from different research traditions—mainly development economics and anthropology—regarding the causes of intensification are integrated and evaluated for their relative effects. It is found that among the variables, household size is better at explaining the degree of intensity with which labor and technology are employed. The results suggest that technologically-driven agricultural intensification is generally forced upon households by the diminishing returns of their labor, and that this process is normally accompanied by increased financial debt for those peasant households who remain in agriculture and do not completely migrate to regional urban centers.

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Notes

  1. A transformity refers to the energy transformation hierarchy describing the number of times “solar energy” has changed form. For a detailed explanation see Odum 1996.

  2. The three households pursuing mostly non-agricultural economic activities that as a result have extremely high densities were excluded from these comparisons.

  3. This is a rough per capita estimate for men, women, and children since the way in which I collected this type of data—by household—does not allow me to disaggregate data to individuals.

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  1. EGADE Business School, Monterrey, NL, Mexico

    Jorge Miguel Rocha

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  1. Jorge Miguel Rocha
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Correspondence to Jorge Miguel Rocha.

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Rocha, J.M. Agricultural Intensification, Market Participation, and Household Demography in the Peruvian Andes. Hum Ecol 39, 555–568 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-011-9426-7

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