Beyond the bean: Analyzing diversified farming, food security, dietary diversity, and gender in Nicaragua’s smallholders coffee cooperatives

Abstract

ABSTRACTDiversification is key for agroecological transformations, but little is known about how it relates to farmers' dietary diversity and food sovereignty. Our team and coffee cooperative staff conducted a participatory action research mixed methods study, including 171 surveys and 50 interviews. Over 70% of the farmers reported self-initiated diversification activities. Statistical analysis showed a significant positive correlation between crop diversity and dietary diversity, while controlling for farm size and income. To assess gender relations females responded to 41% of the surveys, and we separated focus groups by sex. Average male-owned farms were 1.8 ha larger than women-owned farms, yet we found no significant differences in household food security or dietary diversity. Additional disparities included male vs. female perceptions about who does additional diversification work and who decides about strategies. Although the co-op has a strong gender equity and technical assistance program, our analysis of extension training documents identified useful content and a smaller percent of female participants in diversification vs. gender sessions. Suggested strategic actions for co-op planning include supporting: (1) female land ownership, (2) diversification focused farmer-led experimentation, and (3) more training for men on gender, women on diversification, and all participants in feminist agroecology.KEYWORDS: AgroecologygenderCentral Americadiversificationfood sovereigntyparticipatory action researchClimate adptation AcknowledgmentWe are grateful to PRODECOOP staff and families, the facilitators and promoters of each cooperative, and the members of our project team as well as support from Raul Diaz, Rosario Herrera, and the team at ASDENIC in Nicaragua as well as Universidad Nacional Agraria (UNA). We are also grateful for the broader collaboratives on this project that V. Ernesto Mendez, Martha Caswell as well as Rose Cohen. Thanks to Bill Sundstrom for an earlier review of this paper. The projects and study designs were approved by Santa Clara University's Institutional Review Board, with the protocol for the first part of the study approved on 24 June 2013, and the protocol for the second part approved on 17 June 2015.Disclosure statementMisael Rivas works for PRODECOOPCorrection StatementThis article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.Additional informationFunding Funding for this project included support from the project Assessment of Diversification Strategies in Smallholder Coffee Systems [No AF 1507-086: No FDNC Engt 00063479] was supported under the Thought for Food Initiative of the Agropolis Foundation [through the Investissements d'avenir programme with reference number ANR10-LABX-0001-01], Fondazione Cariplo and Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation grant BCS 2117976 and Santa Clara University Office of the Provost, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Honors Program, Hayes Grant, Environmental Justice and Common Good Initiative and Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship.