Landraces as an adaptation strategy to climate change for smallholders in Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil

• Published in: Land use policy Vol. 34; pp. 250 - 254
• Main Authors: Vasconcelos, Ana Carolina Feitosa, Bonatti, Michelle, Schlindwein, Sandro L., D’Agostini, Luiz Renato, Homem, Larissa R., Nelson, Rohan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Agriculture; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Brazil; Climate; climate change; Climate change adaptation; climatic factors; Environmental policy; Extreme weather events; Food; food sovereignty; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General agronomy. Plant production; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; Global warming; hybrids; Land utilization; landraces; Social networks; subsistence farming; Varietal selection. Specialized plant breeding, plant breeding aims; Brazil; South America; America; Brazil, Santa Catarina; Social networks; Climate change adaptation; Extreme weather events; Agricultural production; Extreme event; Landrace(plant); Environmental policy; South; Social network; Bad weather; Land use; Dynamical climatology; Weather; Climate change; Small farms; Farming; Adaptation
• ISSN: 0264-8377; 1873-5754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.03.017

•Smallholder farmers in Santa Catarina have maintained landraces as an adaptation to drought.•These smallholders perceive an intensification of extreme weather events over time.•Landraces are a robust local strategy for adapting agriculture to climate change.•These strategies provide an advanced starting point for locally appropriate adaptation to adapt to the expected future challenges of climate change. Adapting to climate change has become a pressing and urgent issue given the alarming rapidity with which climate changes is taking place. Agriculture is strongly conditioned by climatic factors, but subsistence agriculture is particularly vulnerable because smallholders do not have adequate financial resources to adapt to climate change. Agrobiodiversity provides one option for smallholders to adapt to climate change. Landraces developed in the western region of Santa Catarina State, Brazil, are part of a deliberate strategy by smallholders to achieve a state of food sovereignty and independence from commercial sources of hybrid seed. The ability of smallholders to collectively conserve climate-adapted landraces indicates the depth of local knowledge and capability within local communities that can be drawn on to meet the future challenges of climate change.