Join the SES Thursday, February 1, 2:30-4 PM in KINE Room 106
Abstract:
Coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix, CLR) is the major existential threat to the world’s coffee crops. It is a destructive fungal plant disease and, if left unchecked, can potentially reduce coffee production by up to 50% in just two years. In 2012-2013, ten Latin American governments declared national states of emergency in response to a severe CLR outbreak. Despite CLR’s initial appearance in Central America in 1976, the 2012 outbreak was unprecedented and had a profound socio-economic impact. CLR hit El Salvador the hardest, with a 74% incidence, while Honduras was the least affected at 25%, and Nicaragua fell in between at 37% incidence. Recovery rates also varied, with El Salvador's coffee sector enduring a prolonged decline, while Honduras swiftly rebounded. This talk examines the divergent responses to and recovery trajectories from the 2012 CLR crisis in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It focuses on how each country’s unique historical and political context plays a crucial role in shaping the state’s approach to CLR management, the interaction and collaboration between the state, private sector, and farmer organizations, and how neoliberal policies redraw this interaction.
Bio:
Diana Córdoba is an assistant professor in the Department of Global Development Studies. Her work aims to advance theoretical and empirical understandings of the interplay between political economic processes, the creation and governance of new technologies, and local social and ecological processes in agriculture and food systems. Her focus has been on conventional and alternative agrifood systems, exploring perspectives from feminist political ecology, agrarian political economy, and science and technology studies. Geographically, she has concentrated on the Americas, specifically Brazil, Colombia, and Central America.
All are welcome.