Abstract
This paper examines reconfigurations of household economies and agrobiodiversity through the experiences and responses of rural households to local manifestations of globalisation and environmental change in the Central Valley of Tarija, Bolivia, from the 1950s to the present. Research participant narratives from seven study communities document a widely experienced regional shift from rain-fed agriculture and pastured livestock production for household consumption to market-oriented production of regionally-specialised commodities. Particularly important to this reconfiguration are changing land access and use regimes, household responses to changing opportunities, discourses and social requirements related with ‘modernising lifestyles’, market integration and dependence, changing environmental and ecological conditions, and greater availability of consumer goods and technologies. We analyse how these processes have combined to reconfigure the range of livelihood possibilities available to rural households, or their ‘landscapes of possibility’, in ways that favour transition to specialised commodity production. Patterns of change in household agrobiodiversity use, however, are entwined with threads of persistence, underscoring the contingent nature of rural transitions and the role of local agency and creativity in responding to and sometimes shaping how globalisation unfolds. Examining rural transition through the experiences of households in particular contexts over time offers insights for development policy and practice to support producers’ ability to respond to globalisation and environmental change in ways they see as desirable and beneficial to their livelihoods and wellbeing.
Highlights
Agrobiodiversity has sustained human populations worldwide for millennia; declining use and loss of local crop and livestock varieties over the last century is well documented and often linked with far-reaching changes in rural economies and ways of life (Orlove & Brush, 1996; Smale, 2006; Vandermeer et al, 1998; Zimmerer, 2010)
In considering current and future impacts of globalised change on agrobiodiversity within household economies, we find it helpful to consider how the range of choices available to different actors are shaped over time
Through an empirical case study in southern Bolivia we examine how agrobiodiversity compositions within household production systems have changed during the living memory of research participants (c. 1950 to the present), why they have done so in particular ways and how these changes have been experienced by research participant households
Summary
Agrobiodiversity has sustained human populations worldwide for millennia; declining use and loss of local crop and livestock varieties over the last century is well documented and often linked with far-reaching changes in rural economies and ways of life (Orlove & Brush, 1996; Smale, 2006; Vandermeer et al, 1998; Zimmerer, 2010). 4. Patterns of Change in Household Production While the outcomes of change processes in San Lorenzo and Uriondo communities are distinct (as reflected in regionally-specialised production strategies), strong similarities exist across the study communities with respect to practices, livestock breeds, and crop varieties that constituted past primary production systems and which of those elements have declined or disappeared from the current production landscape (Table 1). For some, declines in pastured livestock are part of a broader reduction in primary production activities associated with ageing (approximately four of the interviewed households), most participants relate declines to other cumulative and mutually reinforcing factors connected with changing regional agricultural production and modernization patterns, environmental change and responses to shifting socio-cultural, economic and ecological contexts of the Central Valley (Table 3)
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