Agricultura comercial, tradicional y vulnerabilidad en campesinos

Abstract

Se estudió la vulnerabilidad a huracanes y sequías en seis unidades domésticas que practican agricultura tradicional (ECT) y cuatro dedicadas a la agricultura comercial (ECC) en Calakmul, Campeche. Se encontró que las unidades ECT tenían un sistema resiliente y flexible adaptado a condiciones locales. Las ECC tomaron más riesgos. Confiaron en su capacidad económica para rescatar suficiente cultivo comercial para vender y empezar un nuevo ciclo. La severidad y frecuencia de eventos ambientales extremos afectarán su sistema dependiendo del tamaño de sus ahorros y los intervalos de bajo precio.

The Vulnerability to hurricanes and drought of six households practicing subsistence agriculture (HSA) and four commercial (HCA) in Calakmul, Campeche was studied. HSA households had a flexible resilient system adapted to local conditions. HCA households were willing to take more risks and gambled on their economic ability to resist environmental stress until they could be rescued by the market. Their system was more vulnerable to local environmental conditions than HSA. As long as they had enough for the next agricultural cycle, their survival depended on a good price for their crops and could be considered as independent of local events.