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Hellin, J.

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Hellin
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Hellin, J.
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0000-0002-2686-8065

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2007 - 200912010 - 20121
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    Impact pathways of trade liberalization on rural livelihoods: A case study of smallholder maize farmers in Mexico
    (Universidad de Zaragoza. Cátedra de Cooperación para el Desarrollo, 2012) Hellin, J.; Groenewald, S.; Keleman, A.
    Research assessing the impacts of trade liberalization on poor rural populations can be divided into two categories: more quantitative research, assessing relationships between specific, measurable variables (such as changes in the macroeconomic environment and their impact on farmers? income levels); and more qualitative research, which takes trade policy as a context and provides broad, descriptive data about dynamic livelihood strategies. In this paper, we outline a framework that could be used to integrate these two approaches by unravelling the macro-micro linkages between national policies and responses at a household level. Using the Mexican maize sector as an illustration, we trace the pathways through which trade liberalization (including the North American Free Trade Agreement) has interacted with changes in government institutions, and thereby impacted on farmers? livelihood strategies. We identify three pathways through which trade policy affects households and individuals: via enterprises, distribution channels, and government, and we link these to a five-category typology of smallholders? strategies for escaping rural poverty: intensification, diversification, expansion, increased off-farm income and exit from agriculture. Based on a case-study from Chiapas, Mexico, we report on farmers? responses to post-liberalization agricultural policies. Data suggest that farmers have intensified maize production, sought more off-farm employment or have exited agriculture altogether. The potential for smallholders to escape poverty by diversifying farms or expanding their land-holdings or herd-size has been largely unrealized. We provide a conceptual framework for linking the impacts of liberalization to farmers? livelihood strategies and suggest that this framework is useful in the context of agricultural modernisation initiatives that seek to increase agricultural production and productivity.
    Publication
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    Manejo de semillas y diversidad del maiz
    (Asociación Ecología,Tecnología y Cultura en los Andes, 2007) Hellin, J.; Bellon, M.
    México es el centro del origen y diversidad del maíz. Según la evidencia arqueológica, su cultivo en Mesoamérica es de aproximadamente 6.000 años, pero los datos genéticos indican cerca de 9.000. Entre la población nativa la planta de maíz representa el origen mismo de la vida. Principalmente se utilizan dos de sus tipos: maíz de grano blanco para el consumo humano directo y maíz de grano amarillo para el consumo indirecto como uno de los componentes de la alimentación del ganado y animales menores, la mayor parte en la producción de aves de corral, huevos y carne de cerdo. Los usos secundarios incluyen: los tallos de maíz como cercos, las hojas de la planta como forraje y las hojas o pancas que cubren la mazorca del maíz para envolver alimentos tradicionales, como los tamales. Las prácticas tradicionales de manejo de las semillas de maíz incluyen la utilización de semillas guardadas de la última cosecha u obtenidas de familiares o amigos. Esto contribuye a introducir nueva diversidad genética al sistema, proporcionando de esta manera rasgos que los agricultores consideran importantes, por ejemplo, rendimiento, facilidad de manejo y sabor. Muchos agricultores mantienen diversas variedades locales de maíz dentro de un mismo sistema de cultivo. Esta es una manera de lidiar con el estrés y los altos riesgos que implica la producción agrícola en ambientes marginales.
    Publication