Understanding actor-centered adaptation limits in smallholder agriculture in the Central American dry tropics

Benjamin P. Warner ()
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Benjamin P. Warner: University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Agriculture and Human Values, 2016, vol. 33, issue 4, No 4, 785-797

Abstract: Abstract Adaptations made by agrarian households in the face of global change risks are largely dependent on their livelihood goals. I argue that adaptation-limit research is crucial to many agrarian development programs because a focus on adaptation limits may allow researchers and practitioners to better understand and support successful adaptation and allow smallholders to pursue their goals. In this study of smallholder farming in Northwest Costa Rica, I found that security and the unique parcelero identity of rice farmers in this region define livelihood goals. I show that an understanding of the multidimensionality and fluidity of farmer livelihood goals may enrich our current understanding of actor-centered adaptation limits as insurmountable thresholds. In response to worsening global change risks, farmers in this study traded off certain goals to pursue others. In this way, farmers do not perceive adaptation limits as insurmountable. Alternative indicators of adaptation limits did exist; irreversibility in adaptation and the great hardship associated with tradeoffs among livelihood goals may mark adaptation limits.

Keywords: Adaptation limits; Transformative adaptation; Livelihood goals; Global change risks; Smallholder farming; Tradeoffs; Rural development; Costa Rica (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-015-9661-4

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