Environmental and Socio-Economic Changes in the Rural Andes: Human Resilience and Adaptation Strategies - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 422

and agricultural techniques of many farms. Whereas in the past the major
objective of most small farmers has been to minimize environmental and
economic risks by traditional strategies of agrarian diversifi cation and a
high degree of self-suffi ciency, the prevalent new outlook of agriculture
is characterized by a greater degree of specialization, higher fi nancial
investments, new agricultural technologies and an enhanced profi tability.
While these objectives are primarily pursued by the larger and productive
farms, they also have a 'demonstration effect' for many smaller family
farms which in turn may become 'islands of sustainability' (Bebbington
1997). This can be seen, for instance, in the production of milk, butter and
cheese, specialized fruit, vegetables, or sheep and alpaca wool for regional,
national and international markets; in the proliferation of greenhouses
for a cultivation of fl owers, and also of numerous poultry stables. In the
piedmont regions of the eastern Cordilleras in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia,
a legal and illegal cultivation of coca represents for many farmers more
lucrative economic opportunities than other forms of agriculture. The efforts
of the United States and occasional interventions by national governments
to promote economic alternatives were largely unsuccessful. Table 19.1
gives a summary of the components of the major changes of agriculture
and rural communities.
The Agrarian reforms since the 1960s abolished in most parts the feudal
system of the traditional haciendas and granted thousands of former landless
peasant small parcels of privately owned land. However, the Agrarian
reforms in most countries later stalled, or were even annulated, the small
farmers often received an inadequate fi nancial and technical support, and
also suffered from defi cient rural infrastructures and services. In addition, a
subsequent subdivision and fragmentation of land holdings aggravated the
rural situation. Especially young people had to look for seasonal agricultural
employment generally in the lowland plantations, or they sought work in
non-agricultural activities, in mines, oilfi elds, and mainly in cities. Many
rural people also emigrated, sent remittances to their remaining family
members or made investments in their home villages. Modernization,
progress and genuine development still remain largely restricted to local
or at best regional niches of affl uence and to a small number of actors and
'market players'. For the most part, the prevailing minifundio agriculture
offers rather limited perspectives and forces the “neoliberal unravelling of
the agrarian reform”.
Rural Resilience and Adaptation Strategies
The concept of resilience focuses on the resistivity of people-environment-
systems. It relates to a fl exible adaptation of people to changes of natural