Abstract
The Camëntsá and Inga indigenous communities still rely on agroforestry systems for their livelihood attainment, although globalization effects have also reached their settlements. Agroforestry systems, especially home gardens, are experiencing reduced size and species diversity and therefore gradually disappearing. This research aims to determine the indigenous family labor contribution to agroforestry systems as a strategy to secure their livelihoods. The methods include a census, household survey, interviews with key informants, and direct observation. Family labor contributes to reducing production costs in agroforestry systems. Three groups of households were identified from the cluster analysis to determine the family labor contribution: smaller, medium-sized, and larger farms. The smaller farms register better economic indicators compared to the other two groups. In addition, they show a positive cost–benefit ratio and profitability, which is explained by lower production costs compared to the gross income generated. Although larger farms have higher gross revenues, these households also assume higher production costs and incur higher input costs. Medium-sized farms face the worst scenario. There is a relationship between the use of family labor and the achievement of livelihoods related to economic indicators and biodiversity and the variety of species harvested on farms and used for self-consumption. Family labor helps to ensure local food security and generate income.
Highlights
The relevance of “local” knowledge arising from the practices of indigenous agroforestry may be highly relevant for addressing multiple and converging global crises and improving climate change mitigation actions, food production, and resilience [1]
Of the three agroforestry systems identified in the Inga and Camëntsá indigenous communities, silvopastoral systems occupied most of the land-use area for livestock (SPL) and pasture production (SPP)
This study showed how family labor contributed to reducing the cost of production in agroforestry systems
Summary
The relevance of “local” knowledge arising from the practices of indigenous agroforestry may be highly relevant for addressing multiple and converging global crises and improving climate change mitigation actions, food production, and resilience [1]. Indigenous communities globally are experiencing profound transformations in their livelihoods and productive models because of a concatenation of multiple global processes such as urbanization, climate change, and migratory flows, among other relevant aspects [2,3,4]. It is increasingly common to observe processes of disintegration of indigenous communities due to the multiple effects of globalization (trade, capital flow, technology, labor, migration, policies, environment), limiting the maintenance of integral models of natural resource management and, encouraging the abandonment of diversified productive systems and their inherent multifunctionality and community identity [5,6]. In India policies have affected the sustainability of local cattle farming systems through the support of crossbreeding with European breeds for more than one decade, triggering the disappearance of local breeds [9]
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