Climate Change: A Perception of Maize Producers of the State of Tlaxcala, México

Abstract

Agricultural activities in the state of Tlaxcala rely mostly on climate conditions. Corn producers know this and adopt a positive or negative perspective according to the way they are present each year. The aim of this work was to determine the producers´ perspective and the characterization of knowledge that they possess about weather, climate change impact on production and the adaptability of corn. This research was descriptive-analytical type. The target subject were Creole corn producers under rainfed conditions. It was taken a probabilistic, incidental sample. The used technique was the survey, applying 1930 questionnaires in 39 municipalities in Tlaxcala. From this, it was obtained that 78% of the interviewed producers are over 50 years old, and 60% reached primary school education. Drought and frost are the main climate events that have an impact on their crops resulting in low production as well as a great economical lost. Corn producers have developed several strategies due to these climate variations, some of them are: changing planting dates, using native seeds resistant to drought, and using organic fertilizers to reduce climatic effects. The interviewed producers´ perception was considerably correlated (p ≥ .05). It can be perceived from this that the knowledge related to weather conditions and the seeds that farmers have, both are endangered; therefore, food security is threatened due to climatic changes that affect water-fed corn production.