Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change
Climate change is predicted to have major impacts on small-scale farmers in Mexico whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed maize. We examined the capacity of traditional maize seed systems to provide these farmers with appropriate genetic material under predicted agro-ecological conditions associated w...
| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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National Academy of Sciences
2011
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| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/21120 |
| _version_ | 1855540678564511744 |
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| author | Bellon, M.R. Hodson D Hellin, Jonathan |
| author_browse | Bellon, M.R. Hellin, Jonathan Hodson D |
| author_facet | Bellon, M.R. Hodson D Hellin, Jonathan |
| author_sort | Bellon, M.R. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Climate change is predicted to have major impacts on small-scale farmers in Mexico whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed maize. We examined the capacity of traditional maize seed systems to provide these farmers with appropriate genetic material under predicted agro-ecological conditions associated with climate change. We studied the structure and spatial scope of seed systems of 20 communities in four transects across an altitudinal gradient from 10–2,980 m above sea level in five states of eastern Mexico. Results indicate that 90% of all of the seed lots are obtained within 10 km of a community and 87% within an altitudinal range of ±50 m but with variation across four agro-climate environments: wet lowland, dry lowland, wet upper midlatitude, and highlands. Climate models suggest a drying and warming trend for the entire study area during the main maize season, leading to substantial shifts in the spatial distribution patterns of agro-climate environments. For all communities except those in the highlands, predicted future maize environments already are represented within the 10-km radial zones, indicating that in the future farmers will have easy access to adapted planting material. Farmers in the highlands are the most vulnerable and probably will need to acquire seed from outside their traditional geographical ranges. This change in seed sources probably will entail important information costs and the development of new seed and associated social networks, including improved linkages between traditional and formal seed systems and more effective and efficient seed-supply chains. The study has implications for analogous areas elsewhere in Mexico and around the world. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace21120 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publishDateRange | 2011 |
| publishDateSort | 2011 |
| publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
| publisherStr | National Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace211202025-06-13T04:20:22Z Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change Bellon, M.R. Hodson D Hellin, Jonathan climate change climatic factors highlands seeds small farms social participation spatial distribution Climate change is predicted to have major impacts on small-scale farmers in Mexico whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed maize. We examined the capacity of traditional maize seed systems to provide these farmers with appropriate genetic material under predicted agro-ecological conditions associated with climate change. We studied the structure and spatial scope of seed systems of 20 communities in four transects across an altitudinal gradient from 10–2,980 m above sea level in five states of eastern Mexico. Results indicate that 90% of all of the seed lots are obtained within 10 km of a community and 87% within an altitudinal range of ±50 m but with variation across four agro-climate environments: wet lowland, dry lowland, wet upper midlatitude, and highlands. Climate models suggest a drying and warming trend for the entire study area during the main maize season, leading to substantial shifts in the spatial distribution patterns of agro-climate environments. For all communities except those in the highlands, predicted future maize environments already are represented within the 10-km radial zones, indicating that in the future farmers will have easy access to adapted planting material. Farmers in the highlands are the most vulnerable and probably will need to acquire seed from outside their traditional geographical ranges. This change in seed sources probably will entail important information costs and the development of new seed and associated social networks, including improved linkages between traditional and formal seed systems and more effective and efficient seed-supply chains. The study has implications for analogous areas elsewhere in Mexico and around the world. 2011-08-16 2012-06-26T07:54:08Z 2012-06-26T07:54:08Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/21120 en Open Access National Academy of Sciences Bellon, M. R., Hodson, D., & Hellin, J. (2011). Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 108, Issue 33, pp. 13432–13437). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1103373108 |
| spellingShingle | climate change climatic factors highlands seeds small farms social participation spatial distribution Bellon, M.R. Hodson D Hellin, Jonathan Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change |
| title | Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change |
| title_full | Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change |
| title_fullStr | Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change |
| title_short | Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change |
| title_sort | assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in mexico to climate change |
| topic | climate change climatic factors highlands seeds small farms social participation spatial distribution |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/21120 |
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