Our NSF-funded research analyzed how drought and other hazards, including shifting food prices, plant pathogen outbreaks, and rapid political economic changes, affect farmers' food and water security. Although household food and water insecurity affects billions of people worldwide, most studies analyze them separately, and policy responses are often siloed. This knowledge gap is further expanded by the lack of commonly accepted indicators for measuring household water security.  In response to this challenge, our study developed a conceptual framework and set of replicable field research and analytical methods to jointly assess household food and water insecurity and explain the experiences, patterns, and determinants of household access to food and water in a multi-hazard context. We identify pathways linking hazards to livelihood vulnerability and assess the relative importance of climate-related and other hazards, analyzing data collected from focus groups, precipitation data, interviews, and two surveys of 311 matched smallholder households conducted in collaboration with community-based organizations in the low mountains of northern Nicaragua.

In these rural farming communities, peak seasons of food and water stress are asynchronous across the agricultural calendar, resulting in a total of five to six months of food or water stress. Across households, we found a significant relationship between water and food insecurity, even after adjusting for stable characteristics of households. Households experienced less food and water insecurity in 2017 than in 2014, due in part to the end of the most severe drought in 30 years in 2016. 

This study stresses the continuing importance of not only climate impacts, but also pathogens and price shifts that reduced the ability of households to purchase necessities, and the mediating influence of income and land holdings. Strategies identified as likely to contribute to building resilience include increasing household incomes often through off farm employment, and augmenting the size of land holdings, especially among the smallest farms. Our analysis of the data from both the 2014 and the 2017 surveys also showed that agroecological and diversified farming practices correlated with improved food security.

Climatic variability and change are two of the multiple hazards contributing to livelihood vulnerability. Our analysis of modeled global climate datasets for the past 4 decades shows significant warming trends throughout Central America as well as an area of significant drying, mostly in Nicaragua. Thus, hydroclimatic hazards may be particularly prominent contributors to food and water insecurity in Nicaragua moving forward. The region has also experienced changes in the intensity and spatial extent of the Mid-Summer Drought (MSD), which occurs between the first and second planting season in Central America and has critical implications for agriculture and food security. Climate change scenarios predict that the MSD will grow longer and drier. To help farmers adapt to these anticipated climatic changes, our ethnographic research shows that we must first develop a common language and set of metrics to share knowledge between farmers and researchers. 

Gender relations and local institutions also play an important role in the determination of household food and water security. To explore these factors we conducted an in-depth case study with cooperatives and village water committees that share a common mountain watershed in the municipality of Condega, Nicaragua, using focus groups, surveys, and community-based mapping and monitoring of water quality and stream flows. Bacterial water contamination remains a pressing concern throughout the region. Women in both communities expressed more concerns about health and sanitation than men, and the community with stronger institutions reported more water security, but not more food security. Conflicts over water for agriculture vs. household use intersected with uneven and gendered power relations and different institutional capacities to affect water access and quality.  

The broader impacts of this research are threefold. First, we successfully developed an interdisciplinary conceptual framework and set of replicable methods for the joint assessment of smallholder food and water security in hazardous environments. Second, the research team, including faculty, one postdoctoral researcher, staff with our counterpart organization in Nicaragua, and more than 25 undergraduate student research assistants (many self-identified as underrepresented minorities) learned new STEM, interdisciplinary research, and cross-cultural collaboration skills. The students participated in publications, scientific conferences, and won two Fulbright research scholarships, a Udall Scholarship for Environmental Policy, a NASA Develop Fellowship, and a Switzer Fellowship for Environmental Leadership. After graduation most found meaningful work or started graduate work at top universities. Lisa Kelley, our former postdoctoral fellow, recently started as an Assistant Professor of Geography & Environmental Science at CU-Denver. Third, we shared findings in publications, conferences, and websites as well as participatory workshops with farmers and civil society groups in Nicaragua. We also helped develop community-based adaptation plans that farmers started using to leverage support and strengthen their institutional coordination and local regulatory enforcement to protect and restore forests, watersheds, and food systems.

Last Modified: 06/30/2020
Modified by: Christopher Bacon