Farmers' vulnerability to global change in Navarre, Spain

Agricultural landscapes are dynamic environments which change in response to cropping and trade opportunities, available technologies and climatic conditions. In this article, we investigate farmers' vulnerability to climate-related stressors and crop price volatility in rural Navarre, Spain. S...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Albizua, Amaia|||0000-0001-8381-5288, Corbera, Esteve|||0000-0001-7970-4411, Pascual, Unai|||0000-0002-5696-236X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:202238
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/202238
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s10113-019-01462-2
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Social vulnerability
Large-scale irrigation
Global change
Sensitivity
Adaptive capacity
Exposure
Descripción
Sumario:Agricultural landscapes are dynamic environments which change in response to cropping and trade opportunities, available technologies and climatic conditions. In this article, we investigate farmers' vulnerability to climate-related stressors and crop price volatility in rural Navarre, Spain. Specifically, we analyse the extent to which livelihood differences and vulnerability can be partly explained by the development of a large-scale irrigation project promoted by the Spanish and regional governments. Grounded on qualitative and quantitative data gathered across 22 villages, we demonstrate that small-scale diversified farmers appear the most vulnerable and least able to adapt to climate-related stressors and crop price volatility. In contrast, more market-driven, large-scale intensive farmers, who participate in the irrigation project, are the least vulnerable to these stressors. We argue that the irrigation project has increased the short-term adaptive capacity of irrigation adopters while establishing the institutional conditions for the displacement of small-scale farming. Therefore, we suggest that farmers' vulnerability in Navarre can be explained by maladaptive irrigation policies designed to favour large-scale and market-driven agriculture.