Person: Camacho Villa, T.C.
Loading...
Email Address
Birth Date
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Job Title
Last Name
Camacho Villa
First Name
T.C.
Name
Camacho Villa, T.C.
ORCID ID
0000-0002-2908-5357 4 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
- The abandonment of maize landraces over the last 50 years in Morelos, Mexico: a tracing study using a multi-level perspective(Springer, 2019) McLean R., F.D.; Camacho Villa, T.C.; Almekinders, C.; Pè, M.E.; Dell'acqua, M.; Costich, D.E.Understanding the causes of maize landrace loss in farmers’ field is essential to design effective conservation strategies. These strategies are necessary to ensure that genetic resources are available in the future. Previous studies have shown that this loss is caused by multiple factors. In this longitudinal study, we used a collection of 93 maize landrace accessions from Morelos, Mexico, and stored at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Maize Germplasm Bank, to trace back to the original 66 donor families after 50 years and explore the causes for why they abandoned or conserved their seed lots. We used an actor-centered approach, based on interviews and focus group discussions. We adopt a Multi-Level Perspective framework to examine loss as a process, accommodating multiple causes and the interactions among them. We found that the importance of maize landrace cultivation had diminished over the last 50 years in the study area. By 2017, 13 families had conserved a total of 14 seed lots directly descended from the 1967 collection. Focus group participants identified 60 accessions that could still be found in the surrounding municipalities. Our findings showed that multiple interconnected changes in maize cultivation technologies, as well as in maize markets, other crop markets, agricultural and land policies, cultural preferences, urbanization and climate change, have created an unfavorable environment for the conservation of maize landraces. Many of these processes were location- and landrace-specific, and often led to landrace abandonment during the shift from one farmer generation to the next.
Publication - Collaborative research on Conservation Agriculture in Bajío, Mexico: continuities and discontinuities of partnerships(Taylor & Francis, 2019) Martinez Cruz, T.E.; Almekinders, C.; Camacho Villa, T.C.Agricultural technologies are debated and contested. Studying the socio-political life of agricultural research can help us to understand why some particular technologies or pathways are favoured (and others not) and eventually why expectations are maintained or not. We studied the 30-year trajectory of practices of Conservation Agriculture in the central region of Mexico. The results of our interviews and literature review show how, over the course of time, Conservation Agriculture (CA) technology has successively changed from being referred to as Conservation Tillage, Direct Seeding, Conservation Agriculture and has now, finally become integrated within Sustainable Intensification. These changes are connected with revamped narratives and the applications of the latest research and development (R&D) paradigms. They were the result of new spaces for CA projects opening up after other spaces had closed, spaces that allowed the researchers, politicians, technicians and farmers to continue to engage in CA in a reconfigured way that fit the various agendas. The opening and closure of spaces for CA projects were the result of researchers being subject to, and taking advantage of, political changes and of politicians seeking new initiatives to support their agendas. This shows how research and politics are mutually dependent and how they generate a discontinuity of project interventions which, paradoxically, represent a continuity of agendas and research processes. As CA is both a complex and flexible technology, it has been possible to make it fit to accommodate the changing agendas of different actors.
Publication - Comparing ex situ and in situ conservation in maize landraces(CIMMYT, [2018]) McLean R., F.D.; Camacho Villa, T.C.; Costich, D.E.; Almekinders, C.; Dell'acqua, M.; Pè, M.E.
Publication - The evolution of the MasAgro hubs: responsiveness and serendipity as drivers of agricultural innovation in a dynamic and heterogeneous context(Taylor & Francis, 2016) Camacho Villa, T.C.; Almekinders, C.; Hellin, J.; Martinez Cruz, T.E.; Rendon-Medel, R.; Guevara-Hernandez, F.; Beuchelt, T.D.; Govaerts, B.Little is known about effective ways to operationalize agricultural innovation processes. We use the MasAgro program in Mexico (which aims to increase maize and wheat productivity, profitability and sustainability), and the experiences of middle level ‘hub managers’, to understand how innovation processes occur in heterogeneous and changing contexts. Design/methodology/ approach: We use a comparative case study analysis involving research tools such as documentary review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and reflection workshops with key actors. Findings: Our research shows how a program, that initially had a relatively narrow technology focus, evolved towards an innovation system approach. The adaptive management of such a process was in response to context-specific challenges and opportunities. In the heterogeneous context of Mexico this results in diverse ways of operationalization at the hub level, leading to different collaborating partners and technology portfolios. Practical implications: MasAgro experiences merit analysis in the light of national public efforts to transform agricultural advisory services and accommodate pluralistic agricultural extension approaches in Latin America. Such efforts need long-term coherent macro level visions, frameworks and support, while the serendipitous nature of the process requires meso-level implementers to respond and adapt to and move the innovation process forward. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the debate on how to operationalize large programs by showing that the innovation support arrangements enacted in the field should allow for diversity and have a degree of flexibility to accommodate heterogeneous demands from farmers in different contexts as well as continuous changes in the politico- institutional environment.
Publication