The impact of coffee leaf rust on migration by smallholder coffee farmers in Guatemala

•Guatemalan smallholder farmers lost an average of 71% of their crop to coffee leaf rust (CLR) during their self-defined worst year of crop loss.•Farmer migration rates more than doubled due to the CLR outbreak.•Households that suffered high crop losses due to CLR were more likely to migrate.•Househ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:World development 2022-08, Vol.156, p.105918, Article 105918
Main Authors: Dupre, Samuel I., Harvey, Celia A., Holland, Margaret B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to information
Agricultural production
Climate change
Coffee
Coffee leaf rust
Community
Coping
Crop diseases
Crop production
Crops
Decisions
Destinations
Disease
Disruption
Epidemics
Farmers
Guatemala
Hemileia vastatrix
Households
Human migration
Information dissemination
Leaf rust
Migration
Migration patterns
Outbreaks
Plant diseases
Rural areas
Small farms
Smallholder farmer
Wealth
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Guatemalan smallholder farmers lost an average of 71% of their crop to coffee leaf rust (CLR) during their self-defined worst year of crop loss.•Farmer migration rates more than doubled due to the CLR outbreak.•Households that suffered high crop losses due to CLR were more likely to migrate.•Households with more access to information and communication technology were less likely to migrate.•CLR created new migration patterns in previously non-migrant communities. Climate change is driving severe outbreaks of crop diseases, decimating agricultural production, and disrupting rural livelihoods globally. While the patterns of agricultural disease outbreaks are well documented, less is known about the extent to which climate change-driven diseases are affecting crop production, disrupting farmer livelihoods, and potentially altering farmer migration patterns. In this study, we investigated the impacts of an extended outbreak (2007–2016) of coffee leaf rust (CLR, Hemileia vastatrix) on the livelihoods and migration decisions of smallholder coffee farmers in ten communities in eastern Guatemala, comparing coffee farming households from communities that had a history of migration with those that did not. We used a mixed-methods approach to assess the impacts of CLR on coffee production and farmer livelihoods, documented the migration decisions of household members, and compared migration rates and destinations between migrant communities and previously non-migrant communities. We also assessed the effects of crop loss, household wealth, and information access on the use of migration as a coping strategy among affected households. We found that smallholder farmer households lost an average of 71% (SE = 2%) of their coffee production during their self-defined worst year of CLR impact. Household migration almost doubled in response to CLR, both in communities that had a history of migration and in historically non-migrant communities. Migration was more likely among households that experienced greater crop losses of due to CLR. In contrast, migration was lower among households that had greater access to information. Our study demonstrates the potential for climate-driven disease outbreaks to significantly impact farmers’ livelihoods and increase farmer migration from rural regions, and highlights the need for urgent action to support farmers to adapt to these changing conditions.
ISSN:0305-750X
1873-5991
DOI:10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105918