Barriers to the Adoption of Alley Cropping as a Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice: Lessons from Maize Cultivation among the Maya in Southern Belize

Rico Kongsager

doi:10.3390/f8070260

Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is proposed as a necessity, as the agricultural sector will need to adapt to resist future climatic change, to which high emissions from the sector contribute significantly. This study, which is an exploratory case study based on qualitative interviews and field observations, investigates the barriers to making a CSA-adjustment in maize production among Maya communities in southern Belize. The adjustment is alley cropping, which is a low-input adjustment that has the potential to result in both adaptation and mitigation benefits, and furthermore, to enhance food security. The findings show that a CSA-adjustment in small-scale maize production in Maya villages in southern Belize is possible in principle, though several barriers can make the overall climate-smart objective difficult to implement in practice. The barriers are of a proximate and indirect nature, exist at different spatial scales, and involve various levels of governance. The barriers are shown to be land tenure, market access, and changes in the traditional culture, however, these barriers are not homogenous across the villages in the region. To break down the barriers an overall district-level strategy is possible, but the toolbox should contain a wide variety of approaches. These could happen, for instance, through alterations to land tenure and the land taxation system nationally, enhancement of the agricultural extension system to ease access to knowledge and input at the district level, and support to a less complex governance structure at the village level.

Highlights

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates 24% of global anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases in 2010 originated from agriculture and land use change [1]
It is realized that agricultural production and food security in the Global South and North are already being affected by climatic changes [5], and that land use systems globally will have to change in response to future climate change, which will cause major changes in livelihoods and landscapes [6]
By using the framework by Murdiyarso and colleagues [49], maize cultivation around the Maya villages was found as the activity with the largest potential overlap between adaptation and mitigation

Summary

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates 24% of global anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases in 2010 originated from agriculture and land use change [1]. It is realized that agricultural production and food security in the Global South and North are already being affected by climatic changes [5], and that land use systems globally will have to change in response to future climate change, which will cause major changes in livelihoods and landscapes [6]. Smallholders practicing rainfed farming in tropical regions are exposed to climatic changes and low food security [7,8,9,10]. On this background, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has been proposed as a broad framework of techniques and measures to promote synergies and circumvent trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural sector [6,11]. CSA includes, for example, practices to improve soil water-holding capacities by adding crop residues and manure to arable soils, which affects

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion