Department of Natural Resource Sciences and McGill School of Environment, McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada.
PLoS One. 2018 May 24;13(5):e0198113. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198113. eCollection 2018.
As the production of non-traditional export (NTX) crops by smallholder households in developing countries expands, there is a compelling need to understand the potential effects of this type of agricultural production on household food security and nutrition. We use two household surveys with a sample of 52 households, interviews, and focus groups to examine whether smallholder farmers who produce broccoli for export in a rural Guatemalan community have different household food security than farmers in the same community who are still growing traditional maize and bean crops. We explore and compare the food security status of broccoli farmers (adopters) and traditional farmers (non-adopters) across four dimensions of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. Adopters earned significantly more income (40%) than non-adopters, but higher incomes did not coincide with improvements in food availability, food access, or food utilization. Results indicate that adopters and non-adopters alike struggle with access to food, while the intensity of broccoli production may be undermining the ability of local agricultural systems to naturally control pests and regulate nutrients. More systematic approaches to food security assessment, especially those that consider all four dimensions of food security, are needed to better target interventions designed to alleviate food insecurity among rural smallholders.
随着发展中国家小农家庭非传统出口（NTX）作物产量的扩大，迫切需要了解这种农业生产对家庭粮食安全和营养的潜在影响。我们使用了两个包含 52 户家庭的调查和访谈、焦点小组，来研究在危地马拉农村社区中种植西兰花出口的小农与仍种植传统玉米和豆类作物的农民相比，他们的家庭粮食安全状况是否有所不同。我们探索并比较了在四个粮食安全维度（供应、获取、利用和稳定性）上，西兰花种植户（采用者）和传统农民（非采用者）的粮食安全状况。与非采用者相比，采用者的收入显著增加（40%），但较高的收入并没有带来粮食供应、获取或利用的改善。结果表明，采用者和非采用者都难以获得食物，而西兰花生产的强度可能正在破坏当地农业系统自然控制害虫和调节养分的能力。需要更系统的粮食安全评估方法，特别是那些考虑粮食安全的所有四个维度的方法，以便更好地针对农村小农户的粮食不安全问题采取干预措施。
