Sustainability of agroecological interventions in small scale farming systems in the Western Highlands of Guatemala

ABSTRACT

The Western Highlands of Guatemala are dominated by small-scale farming in indigenous communities. Mountain conditions and overpopulation have led to expansion of the agricultural frontier with consequent degradation, decreasing yields, poverty and malnutrition. Several non-government organizations (NGO) have carried out interventions to rescue the milpa system and diversify farming systems. We used the Framework for the Evaluation of Management Systems using Indicators (MESMIS) to evaluate farm sustainability after such interventions. We analysed data from four participating NGOs, interviewing 50 farmers with several years of collaboration as alternative systems, and 50 farmers of recent incorporation as reference systems. A trend towards moderate improvements was found in yields, food availability and reduced losses due to pests, diseases and climatic events. Given the environmental conditions and farm size it seems unlikely that most farms could achieve food self-sufficiency. In some cases, the increase in yields and food security correlate with a higher external input dependence. Even with agroecological interventions, external inputs might be needed. Direct indicators need to be measured in future studies for soil quality and erosion control. Even though the study cases showed regional differences, it was possible to develop a common, robust group of indicators, along with some case-specific ones.

KEYWORDS:

• Agroecology
• sustainability
• food security
• Guatemala
• MESMIS

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all participating farmers, technicians of the collaborating NGOs Sahira Tello, Jeimy Figueroa, Uribe Guzman, Gabriela Socop and Abelardo Cutuc; and USAC students Fernando Fuentes Dionicio, Liliana Gabriela Soto, Rolando de León Mejía, Evelyn Yax Pelico and Xojlin Con Tzep.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed by the USAID-Feed the Future Buena Milpa project (2015-2018) as well as by the CGIAR research program (CRP) on maize agri-food systems.

Notes on contributors

Carlos E. González-Esquivel

Carlos E. González-Esquivel has a PhD in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of London. He has over 20 years experience in agroecosystem analysis and sustainability evaluation. As part of the MESMIS team, he has conducted and taken part in numerous workshops, graduate and undergraduate theses and research papers on sustainability evaluation in agroecosystems. Other research subjects include silvopastoral systems, forage science and biological control.

Eleonora Camacho-Moreno

Eleonora Camacho-Moreno has a Masters in Tropical Agroecosystems from Colegio de Posgraduados in Mexico and has worked on sustainable technology transfer, agroforestry and silvopastoral systems.

Lourdes Larrondo-Posadas

Lourdes Larrondo-Posadas has a Masters in Sustainability Science from UNAM. Her research focuses on sustainability evaluation of agroecosystems and of biofuel production.

Carlos Sum-Rojas

Carlos Sum-Rojas is an agricultural engineer with over 20 years work in development projects from non-government organizations with international support. He has participated in research and scaling processes with an endogenous development approach, as well as productive projects using agroecological principles. He has broad expertise in training methodologies with the Popular Education framework.

Willian Erik de León-Cifuentes

Willian Erik de León-Cifuentes has a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Technology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is a researcher at the Science and Technology Division of CUNOC-University of San Carlos de Guatemala, where he directs the Research Department on Agriculture, Environment and Territorial Management. He has more than 25 years work in agricultural research, generating, validating and transferring technologies.

Eduardo Vital-Peralta

Eduardo Vital-Peralta has a Masters in Economics and Development Planning from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. He is a researcher at the Science and Technology Division of CUNOC-Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, and currently coordinates the Honey Value Chain of the Regional Consortium of Agricultural Research of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

Marta Astier

Marta Astier is a researcher at UNAM Campus Morelia. She is the author of over 100 international and national publications in agroecology, agricultural sustainability evaluation, and more recently, agrobiodiversity and sustainable local food systems valuation and conservation. Marta coordinates an applied research group called Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (ASAS).

Santiago López-Ridaura

Santiago López-Ridaura is a senior scientist at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), based in its headquarters in Mexico. His research interests are the integrated assessment of farming systems and the use of modeling tools to explore scenarios and understand trade-offs among different objectives. He has over 20 years experience on the development of approaches and tools for farming systems analysis and has worked in both developed and developing countries.