A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua
Nicaragua is severely challenged by poverty and the country was hit hard by the coffee crisis in the beginning of the year 2000. The situation forced farmers to find other ways to earn their livelihood and strawberries were identified as a possible cash crop. One geographical area with promise for s...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | M2 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés Español |
| Publicado: |
SLU/Dept. of Urban and Rural Development
2013
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| Materias: |
| _version_ | 1855570962839240704 |
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| author | Cederlöf, Lina Norrman, Linda |
| author_browse | Cederlöf, Lina Norrman, Linda |
| author_facet | Cederlöf, Lina Norrman, Linda |
| author_sort | Cederlöf, Lina |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Nicaragua is severely challenged by poverty and the country was hit hard by the coffee crisis in the beginning of the year 2000. The situation forced farmers to find other ways to earn their livelihood and strawberries were identified as a possible cash crop. One geographical area with promise for strawberry cultivation was Las Sabanas in northern Nicaragua. There, the farmers have now founded a cooperative, DeliFresa, and the berries are introduced on the market. Simultaneously, more farmers begin to cultivate strawberries with new demands and needs for development arising. The main objective of our study is to describe and analyse the farming system for the farms constitutingthe cooperative DeliFresa, in order to identify challenges for
development of their strawberry production. Specific objectives are to describe the role of strawberries within the farming system and evaluate its potential for
development, with focus on social and economical perspectives, and to investigate processes and actors included in the value chain for strawberries produced by DeliFresa. We analyse the farming system by performing
anagroecosystem analysis and a value chain analysis. Our data consist of 18 qualitative interviews, three participatory observations and four group meetings, taken with theoretical sampling. Our results show that the
strawberries now arean important cash cropand they are sold in a short value chain consisting of four key actors; the farmer, the cooperative DeliFresa, supporting organisations and final customers. The most important process is logistical difficulties of getting the strawberries to the customers. We identify five main challenges for development: (1) The lack of goals (2) Division of labour (3) The functioning of the cooperative (4) Productivity losses (5) The unstable market. |
| format | M2 |
| id | RepoSLU6137 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés Español |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publishDateSort | 2013 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Urban and Rural Development |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Urban and Rural Development |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU61372013-10-03T09:13:47Z A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua ¿Un dulce futuro? : un ánalisis del agroecosistema de cultivo de fresas en el norte de Nicaragua Cederlöf, Lina Norrman, Linda agroecosystem analysis value chain analysis strawberries Nicaragua Nicaragua is severely challenged by poverty and the country was hit hard by the coffee crisis in the beginning of the year 2000. The situation forced farmers to find other ways to earn their livelihood and strawberries were identified as a possible cash crop. One geographical area with promise for strawberry cultivation was Las Sabanas in northern Nicaragua. There, the farmers have now founded a cooperative, DeliFresa, and the berries are introduced on the market. Simultaneously, more farmers begin to cultivate strawberries with new demands and needs for development arising. The main objective of our study is to describe and analyse the farming system for the farms constitutingthe cooperative DeliFresa, in order to identify challenges for development of their strawberry production. Specific objectives are to describe the role of strawberries within the farming system and evaluate its potential for development, with focus on social and economical perspectives, and to investigate processes and actors included in the value chain for strawberries produced by DeliFresa. We analyse the farming system by performing anagroecosystem analysis and a value chain analysis. Our data consist of 18 qualitative interviews, three participatory observations and four group meetings, taken with theoretical sampling. Our results show that the strawberries now arean important cash cropand they are sold in a short value chain consisting of four key actors; the farmer, the cooperative DeliFresa, supporting organisations and final customers. The most important process is logistical difficulties of getting the strawberries to the customers. We identify five main challenges for development: (1) The lack of goals (2) Division of labour (3) The functioning of the cooperative (4) Productivity losses (5) The unstable market. Nicaragua es un país severamente impactado por la pobreza, especialmente a comienzos del año 2000, cuando la baja en los precios del café afectó al país. La mala situación de los agricultores les forzó a encontrar otras maneras de ganarse su sustento y el cultivo de fresas fue identificado como un posible cultivo comercial. Una de las áreas aptas para el cultivo de fresa era Las Sabanas en el norte de Nicaragua. En este caso, los agricultores han fundado una cooperativa, DeliFresa, y las fresas se han introducido en el mercado. Al mismo tiempo, más agricultores empiezan a cultivar fresas y nuevas demandas y necesidades de desarrollo están surgiendo. Encontrar estos puntos es, por tanto, una cuestión clave para el desarrollo de la vida de los agricultores. El objetivo principal de nuestro estudio es describir y analizar el sistema de producción de las fincas miembros de la cooperativa DeliFresa para identificarlos desafíos para el desarrollo de la producción de fresas. Los objetivosespecíficos son describir la función del cultivo de fresas en el sistema de producción y evaluar su potencial de desarrollo, con énfasis en perspectivas sociales y económicas y para investigar los procesos y agentes incluidos en la cadena de valor de las fresas producidas por DeliFresa. Las teorías elegidas son el Análisis del Agroecosistema y el Análisis de Cadena de Valor. Un muestreo teórico se ha aplicado y los empíricos recogidos por 18 entrevistas cualitativas, tres observaciones participativas y dos reuniones de grupo. Los resultados muestran que las fresas ahora son un cultivo comercial importante para el agroecosistema.Nuestros resultados muestran que las fresas son ahora un importante cultivo comercial y se venden en una cadena de valor corta, formada por cuatro actores claves, el agricultor, la cooperativa DeliFresa, organizaciones de apoyo y los clientes. El proceso más importante es las dificultades logísticas de conseguir las fresas a los clientes. Identificamos cinco retos principales para el desarrollo: (1) La falta de objetivos (2) La división del trabajo (3) El funcionamiento de la cooperativa (4) Las pérdidas de productividad (5) El mercado inestable. SLU/Dept. of Urban and Rural Development 2013 M2 eng spa https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/6137/ |
| spellingShingle | agroecosystem analysis value chain analysis strawberries Nicaragua Cederlöf, Lina Norrman, Linda A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua |
| title | A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua |
| title_full | A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua |
| title_fullStr | A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua |
| title_full_unstemmed | A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua |
| title_short | A sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern Nicaragua |
| title_sort | sweet future? : an agroecosystem analysis of strawberry farms in northern nicaragua |
| topic | agroecosystem analysis value chain analysis strawberries Nicaragua |