Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Livelihood change, farming, and managing flood risk in the Lerma Valley, Mexico

  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In face of rising flood losses globally, the approach of “living with floods,” rather than relying on structural measures for flood control and prevention, is acquiring greater resonance in diverse socioeconomic contexts. In the Lerma Valley in the state of Mexico, rapid industrialization, population growth, and the declining value of agricultural products are driving livelihood and land use change, exposing increasing numbers of people to flooding. However, data collected in two case studies of farm communities affected by flooding in 2003 illustrate that the concept of flood as agricultural “hazard” has been relatively recently constructed through public intervention in river management and disaster compensation. While farming still represents subsistence value to rural households, increasingly rural communities are relying on non-farm income and alternative livelihood strategies. In this context, defining flooding in rural areas as a private hazard for which individuals are entitled to public protection may be counterproductive. A different approach, in which farmers’ long acceptance of periodic flooding is combined with valuing agricultural land for ecoservices, may enable a more sustainable future for the region’s population.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We use a common definition of risk as the probability of a hazard occurring and creating loss. Risk is thus a function of both the biophysical hazard (e.g., probability of a flood event) and the expected consequences of the event (e.g., its material, social, ecological and economic impacts). See discussion in Smith (2004) and Tobin and Montz (1997).

  2. The Agrarian Reform constituted a period of land distribution following the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1917. It had its peak in the 1930s but continued until 1992. Over this period 51.4% of the national territory was distributed to smallholder farmers in agrarian communities called ejidos and comunidades agrarias. Most of the land now farmed in ejidos is done on an individual basis. A reform to the constitution in 1992 was followed by a land regulation program “PROCEDE” that registered both individual ejido titles as well as land that had been fragmented and informally assigned to others in the decades following the original land distribution program. This titling process led to the formalization of plot fragmentation and also the official recognition of landholders in the ejidos.

  3. As case studies, the household interviews were not intended to produce findings generalizable to the broader population of flood affected households in the Lerma Valley. Nevertheless, the similarity of characteristics of the interviewed households to the available statistics on households flooded in 2003 in the region suggests that at least in terms of age, landholding, and livelihood, the households interviewed for this study are not unrepresentative. The average age of the 48 households interviewed in the two communities was consistent with the average age of all beneficiaries of FAPRACC in the two villages (49–52 years) and representative in terms of landholding size (averaging 2 ha in EPG and 1 ha in San Bartolo). Although beneficiaries to the program FAPRACC are recorded only in terms of beneficiary age and total land area, an independent evaluation of FAPRACC in 2003 conducted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) found that only 34% heads of households affected by flooding in the state of Mexico claimed that agricultural activities were their only economic activity; for the majority agricultural activities represented one of two or three income sources. For all FAPRACC recipients that year in the country, agriculture constituted only 16% of household income. These statistics largely support the qualitative livelihood data reported by the farmers interviewed in the case studies.

  4. An administrative unit similar to a US county.

  5. The national domestic maize supply, including Mexico City, has shifted towards high yielding regions such as Sinaloa and imports from the US.

  6. PROCAMPO is a program that was instituted in late 1993, prior to the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. PROCAMPO was initially designed to provide farmers economic support while they transitioned out of a maize-based mode of production into more competitive crops. It has become the primary public source of economic support for rural households with land.

  7. This article draws primarily from the household-level data collected in the two communities. To enhance the historical and contextual understanding of the relationship between flooding and livelihood change, supplementary data is also drawn from this prior work, including a survey of 114 households in Emilio Portes Gil carried out in 2003. The survey was applied to a sample of households in EPG as part of a larger project, La transformación de la ruralidad mexicana: modos de vida y respuestas locales y regionales, coordinated by Kirsten Appendini, El Colegio de México, with funding from Conacyt. (See Appendini and De Luca 2006).

References

  • Aguilar Santelises, A., G. Arevalo Galarza, and A. Torres Estrada. 1997. Atlas ecológico de la cuenca hidrográfica del Río Lerma. Toluca: Gobierno del Estado de México.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appendini, K., and M. De Luca. 2006. Estrategias rurales en el nuevo contexto agrícola mexicano. Document serie: Género y Manejo de Recursos Naturales, Género y Trabajo. Rome: FAO.

  • Blaikie, P., T. Cannon, I. Davis, and B. Wisner. 1994. At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brouwer, R., R. van Ek, R. Boeters, and J. Bouma. 2006. Living with floods: An integrated assessment of land use changes and floodplain restoration as alternative flood protection measures in the Netherlands. CSERGE Working Paper No. EMC-2001–06. University of East Anglia, UK: Norwich.

  • Colín López, A.R., and X. Guadarrama Romero. 2001. Las transformaciones en la organización campesina del trabajo. Thesis. Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Administración Pública. Teoluca, México: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.

  • Contreras Marmolejo, F.J. 2008. El pago por servicios ambientales: una reconcialiación con la naturaleza. México Forestal 76. http://www.mexicoforestal.gob.mx/editorial.php?id=5. Accessed 12 Feb 2008.

  • del Mazo González, L.A., I.A. Martínez Baca, D.G. Figueroa Rodríguez, and I.J. Suárez López. 2001. Programa hidráulico integral del estado de México, consejo consultivo del agua del estado de México. http://www.edomex.gob.mx/comisionagua/doc/pdf/publicaciones/proghidra/proghid.pdf. Accessed 12 Feb 2008.

  • Dessai, S., W.N. Adger, M. Hulme, J. Turnpenny, J. Köhler, and R. Warren. 2004. Defining and experiencing dangerous climate change. Climatic Change 64: 11–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douben, K.J. 2006. Characteristics of river floods and flooding: A global overview, 1985–2003. Irrigation and Drainage 55: S9–S21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellemore, H. 2005. Reconsidering emergency management and indigenous communities in Australia. Environmental Hazards 6: 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esteller, M.V., and C. Díaz-Delgado. 2002. Environmental effects of aquifer overexploitation: A case study in the highlands of Mexico. Environmental Management 29: 266–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Few, R. 2003. Flooding, vulnerability and coping strategies: Local responses to a global threat. Progress in Development Studies 3: 43–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gobierno Municipal de Ixtlahuaca. 2003. Plan municipal de desarrollo urbano de Ixtlahuaca. Toluca: Secretaría de Desarrollo Urbano.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, K. (ed.). 1983. Interpretations of calamity. Winchester: Allen and Unwin, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, K. 1997. Regions of risk: A geographical introduction to disasters. Harlow: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, G. 2005. Living with flood: A sustainable approach for prevention, adaptation, and control. Water International 30: 2–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • INEGI. 2001. XII Censo general de población y vivienda, 2000. Síntesis de resultados. Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática: Aguascalientes.

    Google Scholar 

  • INEGI. 2006. Conteo de población y vivienda, 2005. Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática: Aguascalientes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, C., E. Penning-Rowsell, and D. Parker. 2007. Natural and imposed injustices: The challenges in implementing “fair” flood risk management policy in England. The Geographical Journal 173: 374–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klijn, F., M. van Buuren, and S.A.M. van Rooij. 2004. Flood-risk management strategies for an uncertain future: Living with Rhine River floods in The Netherlands? Ambio 33: 141–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kundzewicz, Z.W., and Z. Kaczmarek. 2000. Coping with hydrological extremes. Water International 25: 66–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liverman, D. 1990. Drought impacts in Mexico: Climate, agriculture, technology and land tenure in Sonora and Puebla. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 80: 49–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liverman, D. 2004. Who governs, at what scale and at what price? Geography, environmental governance, and the commodification of nature. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94: 734–738.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magaña, V., J.M. Méndez, R. Morales, and C. Millán. 2005. Consecuencias presentes y futuras de la variabilidad y el cambio climático en México. In Camibo climático: una visión desde México, ed. J. Martínez, and A.F. Bremauntz, 203–213. México, DF: Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales and Instituto Nacional de Ecología.

  • Montz, B.E. 2000. The generation of flood hazards and disasters by urban development of floodplains. In Floods, ed. D.J. Parker, 116–132. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mustafa, D. 1998. Structural causes of vulnerability to flood hazard in Pakistan. Economic Geography 74: 94–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mustafa, D. 2002. Linking access and vulnerability: Perceptions of irrigation and flood management in Pakistan. The Professional Geographer 54: 289–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mustafa, D. 2005. The production of an urban hazardscape in Pakistan: Modernity, vulnerability and the range of choice. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95 (3): 566–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pahl-Wostl, C. 2006. The importance of social learning in restoring the multifunctionality of rivers and floodplains. Ecology and Society 11 (1): 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, D.J. (ed.). 2000. Floods. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelling, M. 1999. The political ecology of flood hazard in urban Guyana. Geoforum 30: 249–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Presidencia Municipal de San Felipe del Progreso. 2004. Plan municipal de desarrollo urbano de San Felipe del progreso estado de México. Toluca: Secretaria de Desarrollo Urbano Estado De México.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rashed Chowdhury, M. 2003. The impact of “Greater Dhaka Flood Protection Project (GDFPP)” on local living environment: The attitude of the floodplain residents. Natural Hazards 29: 309–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SAGARPA. 2003. Reglas de operación del programa del Fondo para Atender a la Población Afectada por Contingencias Climatológicas (FAPRACC). Diario Oficial 27 May 2003.

  • Secretaria de Agua, Obra Pública e Infraestructura para el Desarrollo and Comisión del Agua del Estado de México. 2004. Atlas de inundaciones 10: 10 años previeniendo inundaciones. Naucalpan de Juárez: Gobierno del Estado de México.

  • Smith, K. 2004. Environmental hazards: Assessing risk and reducing disaster. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tobin, G., and B.E. Montz. 1997. Natural hazards. New York: Guildford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Ogtrop, F.F., A.Y. Hoekstra, and F. van der Meulen. 2005. Flood management in the Lower Incomati River Basin, Mozambique: Two alternatives. Journal of the American Water Resources Association June: 607–613.

  • White, G. 1986. Human adjustment to floods. In Geography, resources, environment, ed. R. Kates and I. Burton, 11–25. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by a National Science Foundation International Research Fellowship (Grant 0401939) to H. Eakin. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The authors are appreciative of the support of X. Guadarrama and E. Domínguez in the collection of data as well as the contributions provided to this research by the public officials and rural residents interviewed. The map in this article was prepared by A. Lerner. The article was significantly improved with the helpful suggestions of three anonymous reviewers.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-4060, USA

    Hallie Eakin

  2. Centro de Estudios Económicos, Colegio de México, Mexico, DF, 10740, Mexico

    Kirsten Appendini

Authors
  1. Hallie Eakin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kirsten Appendini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hallie Eakin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Eakin, H., Appendini, K. Livelihood change, farming, and managing flood risk in the Lerma Valley, Mexico. Agric Hum Values 25, 555–566 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9140-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9140-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation