Feasibility of Agroforestry for Climate Change Adaptation
Human activities are unequivocally affecting our earth’s climate system. Changes in weather and climate extremes have been documented across agroecosystems, making it critically important to both livelihoods and ecosystems to implement innovative, sustainable strategies to adapt agricultural systems to the impacts of climate change. The goal of this project is to provide a baseline for understanding if and how agroforestry can be an innovative tool for climate change adaptation in San Diego County, California. Agroforestry, or the planting of trees in an agricultural landscape, is often praised as a sustainable approach to climate change adaptation, and my previous research has shown how agroforestry is often identified by farmers themselves as a critical resource (1-2). Previous work shows that agroforestry can create microclimates with lower mean air temperatures and higher soil moisture, reduce crop transpiration rates by shading crops, draw water from deeper soil layers and support root water uptake by crops, diversify production systems and produce crops of high economic value, and build farmers resilience to climate change (1-5). While agroforestry can provide a multitude of economic, social, and environmental benefits as outlined above, it is not well understood how agroforestry can contribute to adapting agriculture to specific climate change-impacts, such as drought. This is particularly important for farmers in arid and semi-arid environments (such as San Diego County) as these agroecosystems are particularly sensitive to the impacts of climate change, with devastating impacts on crop production and farmer livelihoods.
Sustainable Agroecosystems: Harnessing policy-driven land use change for sustainability, productivity, and vitality of agroecosystems
The cessation of agricultural production in California’s central valley ("land retirement") has risks and opportunities for rural livelihoods, ecological communities, and ecosystem services. Despite being a widespread and expanding land use, fundamental questions of whether, when, and where retired lands contribute ecosystem services (e.g. plant health and pest control) or disservices (e.g. seed rains), and how farmers perceive and respond to nearby land use change remain poorly understood. Our goal is to elucidate interactions between retired agriculture and surrounding working and natural lands to promote ecosystem service provision and reduce the ecological footprint of production activities. Our research objectives are to, (1) characterize revegetation after retirement, (2) identify relationships between retirement, revegetation, and adjacent crop health and pesticide use, (3) build predictive models of ecosystem service impact for retirement scenarios under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), (4) engage producers in understanding the impacts of surrounding retirement, and co-develop management recommendations to maximize the benefits of surrounding agricultural retirement. Using California’s historic drought (2011-2017) as a natural experiment, we will leverage remote sensing, causal inference and qualitative methods to characterize revegetation, and determine the impacts on surrounding plant health and pesticides. Using past as prologue, we will forecast the impacts of SGMA and co-develop solutions with stakeholder that leverage land retirement to increase the sustainability of remnant agriculture.
Ashely Larsen (Bren School, UC Santa Barbara), Dan Sousa (Geography, SDSU), Amy Quandt (Geography, SDSU) Funder: United States Department of Agriculture (2022-2026)
Response and Resilience Following Compound Extreme Events
Climate change impacts are becoming increasingly common, severe, and complex. Multiple climate disasters (droughts, floods, extreme heat) may occur simultaneously or in succession, and interact with non-climate factors (COVID-19 pandemic, land management legislation), compounding the overall impacts and leading to increased vulnerability of social-ecological systems. While the potential impact of compound disasters is recognized, little is known about how natural-resource dependent societies experiencing them respond and build resilience. Our three research questions focus on (1) the impacts of compound disasters on pastoral systems with different land management systems, (2) understanding objective and subjective resilience to compound disasters, and (3) the impacts on the social institutions that are critical to a society’s ability to respond, cope, and recover. Thus, this project aims to understand the response to and impact of compound disasters, using East African pastoral systems as a case study. Such understanding is directly relevant to climate change adaptation and efforts to reduce disaster risk and build resilience in the face of compound disasters.
Amy Quandt (Geography, SDSU), J. Terrence McCabe (Anthropology, UC Boulder), Paul Leslie (Anthropology, UNC Chapel Hill) Funding: National Science Foundation (2022-2025)
Understanding COVID-19 Testing and Vaccine Access for Daytime Farmworkers in Imperial County, California Among COVID-19 mortality, farmworkers are at an increased risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19, even when other social determinants of health were controlled such as poverty, insurance, and COVID-19 language accessibility. Imperial County has the highest proportion of non-white residents in the state of California and a COVID-19 mortality rate more than double the second highest county in the state. The county’s daytime labor force is particularly affected yet understudied. Commuting from Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, the daytime farmworker population is typically in the US daily from 2-3 am to 4-6 pm to ensure Imperial County’s food supply chain continues, yet these workers remain essentially invisible to county vaccination efforts and are excluded from safety net programs. We assessed both daytime and resident farmworker health and safety needs, support for access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination, and COVID-19 related stressors through 12 interviews and 199 surveys with farmworkers. Results from this project have been published in two separate publications in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, one focused on general stressors and the other on latina farmworkers. This project has also been featured in the food-focused online newsource Civil Eats.
Annie Keeney (School of Social Work, SDSU), Amy Quandt (Geography, SDSU), Mercy Villasenor (School of Social Work, SDSU), Daniela Flores (Imperial Valley Equity and Justice Coalition), Luis Flores Jr. (Imperial Valley Equity and Justice Coalition). Funding: UC Davis Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (2021-2022)
Past Research Projects
Improving Access to Agricultural Knowledge Through Mobile Technology Adoption in Africa
Mobile phones have been transformational in Africa. In the October 2012 issue of TIME Magazine, President Clinton identified mobile phones as one of the five ideas that are changing the world. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the pace of change is rapid with projections of smartphone sales moving to greater than 50% of the market by 2020. Further, livestock and agriculture plays a vital role in the social and economic development of most African countries. Mobile technology has increasing potential to improve the agricultural sector in these developing economies. In order to better understand this potential, this research projects asks the question: What are the barriers and opportunities for mobile technology to supply trusted and useful agricultural information to agro-pastoral communities in semi-arid East Africa? As a pilot for this project, in July 2017, I lead a team of enumerators in conducting a quantitative household survey in four communities in Iringa Region, Tanzania. We are currently writing up and publishing these results.
Collaborators: Joel Hartter, Jonathan Salerno, Jeff Herrick, Jason Neff, Timothy Baird, J. Terrence McCabe
The Land-Potential Knowledge System Mobile Phone App: A Tool for Outcome-Based Rangeland Management in the US
Ecological, economic, and social goals for rangelands can be best met through adaptive management. Access to comprehensive information about land potential enhances adaptive management, and having tools for easy, meaningful monitoring is critical. Using the open source Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) mobile app, ranchers can contribute critical, specific data on rangeland sites to a broad database that will enhance data management. LandPKS will also give the rancher the ability to rapidly identify soils and inventory and monitor vegetation for use in management decisions. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of LandPKS as a tool to facilitate good grazingland management and rancher decision-making. This project will advance NRCS objectives including revision of Ecological Site State and Transition models and promotion of adaptive management. The project will achieve the following objectives 1) Implement, test and evaluate the usefulness of the data generated by LandPKS for informing rangeland assessment and management by putting LandPKS in the hands of ranchers so that they can provide feedback to inform current and future usefulness of the tool, and 2) create two new modules to provide ability for ranchers to monitor utilization and assess their land as potential wildlife habitat, a high priority natural resource concern. The project will use a combination of workshops, field days, producer surveys, and web-based and application development.
This work is in the beginning phases of implementation and has been funded by a Conservation Innovation Grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Western Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Collaborators: The Nature Conservancy of Colorado, Colorado State University, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, USDA-NRCS, and The University of Idaho
Building Livelihood Resilience in Semi-Arid Kenya: What Role Does Agroforestry Play?
Livelihoods must adapt to global and local changes in order to maintain livelihood resilience. Agroforestry is one potential livelihood activity which can help farmers adapt to changes and shocks. This project explores if and how agroforestry is building livelihood resilience in the face of environmental and socio-economic shocks in Isiolo County, Kenya. Drawing from resilience thinking and political ecology, this research focuses on general livelihood resilience, along with livelihood resilience to floods, droughts, violent conflict, and wildlife crop raiding. For this research, I utilized a mixed methods research approach in two communities in Isiolo County, Kenya: Burat and Kinna. I conducted 20 qualitative household case studies, 338 quantitative interviews, and archival research to address the research question. This research has been published in the journals Climatic Change, World Development, Society and Ecology, Climate and Development, and Human Ecology. Collaborators: J. Terrence McCabe, Henry Neufeldt
Climate Change, Natural Resource Management, and Conflict in Kenya
Claims that climate change will lead to increased conflict in vulnerable areas of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, have been evident for a decade. Conflict is not expected to be a direct result of rising temperatures and decreased rainfall, but instead, lead to resource scarcities that are predicated on a complex interplay of social, political and economic conditions in specific countries whose response capacities are limited. Increasing competition among ethnic groups and communities over dwindling resources in the areas most affected by climate and ecological change can lead to growing disparities, population changes through migration, and politicization of resource allocations. The academic community is split on the question of the scope of the effects of climate change on political outcomes. This research aims to provide clear scientific evidence of any climate effects on violence across Sub-Saharan Africa and will elaborate the processes by which climate influences are affecting the lives of ordinary people in a large survey in Kenya. A randomized, nation-wide survey was conducted in 2015, as well as follow-up qualitative interviews in 6 Counties in Kenya in 2016. These data are being integrated with remote sensing and GIS analysis. This research is currently being written up and published. Collaborators: John O'Loughlin, Andrew Linke, J. Terrence McCabe, Jaroslav Tir, Frank Witmer
Climate-Smart, Ecosystem-Friendly Livelihood Options in Isiolo County, Kenya
Finding livelihood opportunities for people in arid regions is critically important as they will continue to be impacted by climate change. Importantly, these livelihood options need to be both climate-smart, meaning they are well adapted to deal with the current and future impacts of climate change, and ecosystem-friendly, meaning they do not lead to environmental degradation and when possible contribute to environmental conservation and restoration efforts. This project was carried out in 2013 in consultation with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre's Partners for Resilience Project. A household survey was administers in 7 different communities within Isiolo County, Kenya in order to capture the perceptions of residents about what livelihoods they think are most promising for their future. This research has been published in the journals African Journal of Rural Development and the International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management.
Collaborators: Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, Kenya Red Cross Society - Isiolo Branch, Wetlands International, Cordaid, and the Merti Integrated Development Program.