Abstract

ZARATE MALPICA, Angel Héctor  and  MIRANDA ZAMBRANO, Gloria Amparo. The impact of climate change on food security in vulnerable rural zones in the Peruvian Andes. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2016, vol.7, n.1, pp.71-82. ISSN 2007-0934.

Challenged by many, the actual model of civilization is sustained on ‘post-extractivism thinking’, which has an anthropocentric, technical, universalist and one-dimensional approach, climate change being the main impact. Our aim was to learn about the effects of post-extractivism thinking on the alteration and destruction of all synthesizing life on the planet. With that frame of mind, we aimed to evaluate the effects on the food security of a rural zone damaged by climate change in Peru’s central Andes. It is part of a larger reaching project entitled “Diversidad bio-cultural y sustentabilidad desde los pueblos, perspectivas México-Perú”. Universidad de Guanajuato and the Universidad Nacional del Centro del Perú launched this project in 2012. Descriptive and explicative methods were used, resorting to the fast participative diagnostic and to participant observation in order to estimate the indicators of food security. Similarly, the use of semi-structured surveys and interview techniques were employed to evaluate the perception of climate change and the impact on agricultural activities. Among the relevant findings, evidence of climate tropicalization due to the increase in temperature was most noted, which will accelerate the life cycle of insects making it possible to find the ‘Andean weevil’ in all its life cycles and the increase of pathogens which showcase more diseases that are harmful to crops. Similarly, the increase in CO2 emissions has increased the sensitivity of crops to drought, acting as a fertilizing gas that accelerates the growth and the size of food plants (accumulation of fiber in detriment to the protein level). They therefore increase in growth, but their quality decreases. We concluded that climate change indeed directly and severely affects the availability and access components of the food security of the zone and in a lesser magnitude the components of biological use and stability, respectively.

Keywords : climate change; food security; Peruvian Andes.

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