Smallholder farmers’ perceptions of and adaptations to water scarcity in an irrigated system in Chiapas, Mexico

ABSTRACT

This paper explores smallholder farmers’ perceptions of and adaptations to water scarcity in an irrigated system in south-eastern Mexico. Data from 85 farmers in four communities were collected through semi-structured interviews. The results show that farmers’ adaptations are stimulated by their perceptions of the causes and dynamics of water scarcity. Findings also reveal that differences in perceptions of, and adaptations to, water scarcity within communities are due to characteristics such as irrigation techniques, water intake location, productive systems and access to groundwater. This study recommends the implementation of policies based on local conditions to cope with water scarcity.

KEYWORDS:

• Peasant communities
• water shortages
• Suchiate River basin
• irrigation
• environmental changes
• Mexico

Acknowledgements

We thank all the farmers and stakeholders who gave their time during this study. We also thank Gabriela Cuevas García for making Figure 1 (maps of the study area); and Paola Pérez for transcribing the interviews. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers as well as the journal’s editorial board for their very useful suggestions.

Author contributions

David Leroy: conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, writing – original draft, and editing. Gerardo Bocco: review and editing. Sara Barrasa García: review and editing, funding acquisition.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, ‘Programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación e innovación tecnológica’ [grant number IN303620], and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México ‘Programa de becas posdoctorales en la UNAM-DGAPA’.