Peasant Households Strategies in the Andes and Potential Users of Climate Forecasts: El Nino of 1997-1998

Corinne Valdivia, Christian Jette, Roberto Quiroz, Jere L. Gilles and Susan M. Materer

No 92895, Working Papers from University of Missouri Columbia, Department of Agricultural Economics

Abstract: Production strategies pursued by households and individuals in a peasant community of the Bolivian Altiplano are shaped by access to resources, social networks and institutions, wealth, and the ability to develop urban rural linkages. In times of climatic stress such as the low rainfall of 1995, the household economic portfolio shifts to activities less vulnerable to climate. The ability to shift is conditioned by access to resources, social capital, stage in the life cycle and wealth. Atypology developed to understand how strategies take shape during a drought is used to evaluate access to information during el Nino (1997-98) and impacts on potato production in 1998-99. The relationship between diversification and use of climate forecasts (local and modern) is evaluated. The study proposes that diversification and use of forecasts may go hand in hand, and should be considered in the profile of potential users.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Environmental Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
Date: 2002-02-25
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/92895/files/aewp2001-4.pdf (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:ags:umcowp:92895

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.92895

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Missouri Columbia, Department of Agricultural Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().