Governance for Adoption of Agroecological Practices in Hass Avocado Production: Case study of San Vincente de Ferrer, Colombia.

Abstract

Conventional avocado production has had an impact on Colombia’s environmental dynamics, such as soil degradation, water pollution and loss of biodiversity, and socioeconomic dynamics, such as threats to the livelihood of small-scale farmers and threats to food security. Agroecological avocado production offers a more sustainable alternative to address the environmental and socioeconomic challenges, but its uptake thus far is limited. It is then important to understand in more detail what is impeding and what can stimulate avocado farmers to adopt agroecological practices in avocado production. Theory suggests that there are four key conditions -ability, motivation, demand & legitimacy- necessary for farmers to adopt agroecological practices, which are influenced by economic, social, informational and political factors, which stimulate or imped the presences of the four conditions. Governance arrangements then influence these factors, through strategies that (in)directly affect the promotion and support of agroecological practices. Several actors participate in these arrangements, such as international actors, national and regional governments, non-governmental organizations, private actors, and farmers. Thus, this research aims to answer the question of how can governance arrangements stimulate the conditions for adoption of agroecological practices in avocado production? The research was designed as a most similar, single-case study with two embedded sub-cases, namely associated and independent farmers, in the municipality of San Vicente de Ferrer, Colombia, the biggest producer of Hass avocado in the Antioquia region. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The results show that, in this context, farmers are generally motivated to adopt agroecological practices, but there are barriers that hinder their abilities, especially for independent farmers. Moreover, factors such as lack of trust in the government (legitimacy), lack of pressure from -local- markets and government to adopt agroecological practices (demand) and community support in the case of independent farmers (ability and motivation), need to be addressed to have all the conditions. Current governance arrangements are aimed at addressing economic availability through subsidy schemes and credits for farmers, and informational factors by providing training on sustainable farming practices. Nevertheless, they are insufficient addressing factors as corruption, trust and community building, which are key factors to increase the uptake of agroecological avocado practices.