The spectre of historical crop losses: Challenging questions and methodological issues

Ana Isabel Queiroz, Inês Gomes and Inês Amorim
Additional contact information
Ana Isabel Queiroz: University of Évora (Portugal)
Inês Gomes: University of Coimbra (Portugal)
Inês Amorim: University of Porto (Portugal)

Historia Agraria. Revista de Agricultura e Historia Rural, 2020, issue 82, 7-32

Abstract: Calamities in agricultural production have emerged as a relevant research topic for global food security in the current context of adaptation to climate change. Historians have been participating in this research by examining crop losses in the past. However, they face challenging questions and methodological issues when evaluating the magnitude, intensity and social relevance of damages caused by adverse climate events and plant pests and diseases. This paper presents a review of some aspects that lead to harvest failures, along with three case studies involving Portuguese territories in modern times, based on the scientific interest and research of the authors. A few methodological considerations are also provided concerning decryption and the use of available data, to help avoid misinterpretations in future research on the topic.

Keywords: environmental history; climatic events; crop losses; plant pests; disasters (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N50 Q51 Q54 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://repositori.uji.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10 ... quence=1&isAllowed=y (application/pdf)

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:seh:journl:y:2020:i:82:m:december:p:7-32

Access Statistics for this article

Historia Agraria. Revista de Agricultura e Historia Rural is currently edited by Vicente Pinilla

More articles in Historia Agraria. Revista de Agricultura e Historia Rural from Sociedad Española de Historia Agraria Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Vicente Pinilla ().