Adaptive Responses and Resilience of Small Livestock Producers to Climate Variability in the Cruz Verde-Sumapaz Páramo, Colombia

Julio C. Postigo (), Victoria-Eugenia Guáqueta-Solórzano, Edna Castañeda and Cesar Enrique Ortiz-Guerrero
Additional contact information
Julio C. Postigo: Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
Victoria-Eugenia Guáqueta-Solórzano: Departamento de Desarrollo Rural y Regional, Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá 110231, Colombia
Edna Castañeda: Departamento de Desarrollo Rural y Regional, Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá 110231, Colombia
Cesar Enrique Ortiz-Guerrero: Departamento de Desarrollo Rural y Regional, Facultad de Estudios Ambientales y Rurales, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá 110231, Colombia

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Enhanced anthropogenic climatic variability challenges small farmers. In the Sumapaz páramo (Colombia), higher irregularity in precipitation and temperature reduces the quality of pasture and cattle health. Data from surveys, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups were analyzed to understand livestock farmers’ responses to the impacts of climatic variability. To estimate the communities’ resilience in the páramo , we used the capitals framework, the Baseline Resilience Indicator for Communities (BRIC), and cluster analysis. The responses of most households aim to reduce the impacts of climatic variability on the production system, chiefly intensifying practices such as the rotation of paddocks, livelihood diversification, purchase of grass, and buying and selling livestock. Interestingly, farmers did not recognize the value of the types of capital for responding to climatic variability. Results showed that the use of available physical, social, and economic capitals render the farming system resilient. Our probit model estimated that economic and human capitals are the largest and most significant contributors to communities’ capacity to respond to climatic variability. However, pre-existing non-climatic vulnerabilities are also important. For example, poverty hinders farmers from using their income in response to climatic variability. The place-based measurements used in this research are easily understood and applicable by local policy makers to address increasing climate variability.

Keywords: adaptation; vulnerability; farming systems; small farmers; climate change; extreme events; Andes; Baseline Resilience Indicator for Communities (BRIC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/4/499/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/4/499/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:4:p:499-:d:1374187

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().