FIELD SCATTERING AS AGRICULTURAL RISK MANAGEMENT - A CASE-STUDY FROM CUYO-CUYO, DEPARTMENT OF PUNO, PERU

A risk minimization model is applied to a case study on the eastern An dean escarpment of southern Peru to evaluate the costs and benefits as sociated with field scattering in peasant agriculture. Farmers in Cuyo Cuyo plant up to twenty dispersed fields each year. Total landholding s for a typical family are small: less than one-half hectare is plante d each year. Agricultural inputs, especially labor and fertilizers, ar e large, and yields vary dramatically across plots. Only a small propo rtion of the variance in crop yields can be explained by characteristi cs of fields (i.e., altitude) or the production factors under the cont rol of household management (i.e., labor inputs). Stochastic environme ntal factors are responsible for the greatest part of production varia nce. The risk reduction model examines the mean and variance of yield obtained by cultivating different numbers of dispersed fields. Net yie lds are reduced 7% on average by the additional travel and transport r equired to tend dispersed plots. However, as additional fields are add ed to the household's land portfolio, aggregate production variance an d the risk of failing to meet minimum needs are reduced. Pooling harve sts of dispersed fields buffers households from production shortfalls in an environment characterized by temporally and spatially unpredicta ble microclimatic and agroecological factors.