Exploring Market‐Based Development: Market Intermediaries and Farmers in Calakmul, Mexico^*

* I wish to acknowledge the editorial help of Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Lynn Stinson‐Keys, Nora Haenn, and B. L. Turner II, as well as two anonymous reviewers and the editors of the Geographical Review. Any mistakes, misrepresentations, or misperceptions are the sole failings of the author. The research effort was part of the Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region project involving Clark University, the University of Virginia, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, and Harvard University. Its principal sponsors have been the National Aeronautics and Space Administration‐Land Cover and Land Use Change program (NAG5‐6046 and NAG5‐11134), the Center for Integrated Studies of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Carnegie Mellon University (NSF SBR 95–21914), and the National Science Foundation Biocomplexity program (BCS‐0410016). Funding for the author's research specific to chili was provided by the Fulbright Foundation, the Inter‐American Foundation, a Pruser‐Holzhauer Fellowship, and National Science Foundation grant #BCS 9911911.

Abstract.

Market intermediaries play important roles in the development of tropical‐forest frontiers but are often overlooked in the assessment of land‐change dynamics. Consistent with research beyond land‐change studies, intermediaries are found to be a pivotal element in land‐use and land‐cover change in southeastern Mexico. They have stimulated commercial chili cultivation in this development frontier, providing transportation and other services to smallholders who could otherwise not enter the chili market. This role comes at the cost of a near monopoly on chili marketing. The various roles played by these intermediaries, or coyotes, the means by which they operate, and the consequences for smallholders and land use are detailed for the Calakmul Municipality, Campeche, Mexico.

Key words:

• land‐use and land‐cover change
• market intermediaries
• Mexico
• smallholders
• tropical development
• Yucatán

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Keys

Dr. Keys is an assistant professor of geography at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85282.