CALACS: 2021 CALACS Prize for Emerging Scholars

Carmen Ponce: “Intra-seasonal climate variability and crop diversification strategies in the Peruvian Andes: A word of caution on the sustainability of adaptation to climate change.” World Development, 127 (2020), pp. 1-23.

The jury unanimously agreed on the selection of this peer-reviewed paper for the 2021 Emerging Scholar Award. This compelling article examines the impact of climate change on agricultural systems and is based on a sophisticated theoretical analysis supported by a superb command of quantitative data analysis. Taking as a point of reference the Peruvian Andes, Ponce explains how peasant producers, who tend to receive scant state support, respond to climate change by means of crop diversification. The analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of crop diversification is supported by the quantitative data that combines district-level socio-economic data from two agrarian censuses (1994 and 2012) with district-level climate estimates of mean temperature, temperature range and precipitation (1964–1994 and 1982–2012). The jury considers that Ponce’s article artfully highlights the importance of studying the impact of climate change on Latin America agricultural systems.