Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Determinants of Smallholder Maintenance of Crop Diversity in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains

  • Published:
Human Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Smallholder farmers are important managers of global crop diversity. However, agricultural modernization is changing farming practices and raising questions about the socio-ecological factors that support crop diversity. In the context of the semi-arid High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, we explored determinants of crop diversity through a cross-sectional survey and farmer interviews in villages adopting new crops such as apples. Through a multiple linear regression analysis and farmer interviews, we found that market participation, land holdings, and water access influenced crop diversity. We highlight the importance of water access for crop diversity, especially in semi-arid regions with uneven hydrological resources.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Each crop (and variety) has specific biophysical and management considerations that are important but were not recorded in this study.

  2. Although the result was significant when percent of crops marketed squared was the sole market-related independent variable, we chose household market participation and percent of crops marketed as the final variables for the regression because that model had a higher adjusted R2.

References

  • Abay, F, A Bjørnstad, and M Smale. 2009. “Measuring on Farm Diversity and Determinants of Barley Diversity in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.” Momona Ethiopian Journal of Science 1 (2). https://doi.org/10.4314/mejs.v1i2.46048.

  • Abbott, J Anthony. 2005. “Counting Beans: Agrobiodiversity, Indigeneity, and Agrarian Reform.” The Professional Geographer 57 (2): 198–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-0124.2005.00472.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abebe, Tesfaye. 2013. “Determinants of Crop Diversity and Composition in Enset-Coffee Agroforestry Homegardens of Southern Ethiopia.” Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics (JARTS) 114 (1). https://www.jarts.info/index.php/jarts/article/view/2013030542580.

  • Akesbi, N. 2012. “Une Nouvelle Stratégie Pour l’agriculture Marocaine: Le Plan Maroc Vert.” New Medit 11 (2): 12–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Altieri, Miguel A., Clara I. Nicholls, and Marcus A. Lana. 2017. “Agroecology: Using Functional Biodiversity to Design Productive and Resilient Polycultural Systems.” In Routledge Handbook of Agricultural Biodiversity, edited by Danny Hunter, Luigi Guarino, Charles Spillane, and Peter C. McKeown, 224–37. London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Auclair, Laurent, Patrick Baudot, Didier Genin, Bruno Romagny, and Romain Simenel. 2011. “Patrimony for Resilience: Evidence from the Forest Agdal in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains.” Ecology and Society 16 (4). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26268972.

  • Baba, W Mohamed, Simon Gascoin, Lionel Jarlan, Vincent Simonneaux, and Lahoucine Hanich. 2018. “Variations of the Snow Water Equivalent in the Ourika Catchment (Morocco) over 2000–2018 Using Downscaled MERRA-2 Data.” Water 10 (9). https://doi.org/10.3390/w10091120.

  • Barrow, C J, and H Hicham. 2000. “Two Complimentary and Integrated Land Uses of the Western High Atlas Mountains, Morocco: The Potential for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods.” Applied Geography 20 (4): 369–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0143-6228(00)00010-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellon, Mauricio R, and Stephen B Brush. 1994. “Keepers of Maize in Chiapas, Mexico.” Economic Botany 48 (2): 196–209. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02908218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benin, S, M Smale, J Pender, B Gebremedhin, and S Ehui. 2004. “The Economic Determinants of Cereal Crop Diversity on Farms in the Ethiopian Highlands.” Agricultural Economics 31 (2‐3): 197–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2004.tb00257.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhattarai, Basundhara, Ruth Beilin, and Rebecca Ford. 2015. “Gender, Agrobiodiversity, and Climate Change: A Study of Adaptation Practices in the Nepal Himalayas.” World Development 70: 122–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.01.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonham, Curan A, Elisabetta Gotor, Bala Ram Beniwal, Genowefa Blundo Canto, Mohammad Ehsan Dulloo, and Prem Mathur. 2012. “The Patterns of Use and Determinants of Crop Diversity by Pearl Millet (Pennisetum Glaucum (L.) R. Br.) Farmers in Rajasthan.” Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources 25 (1): 85–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brookfield, H. 2002. “Agrodiversity and agrobiodiversity.” In H. Brookfield, C. Padoch, H. Parsons, & M. Stocking (Eds.), Cultivating diversity, understanding analysis and using agricultural diversity. London: ITDG Publishing.

  • Chaves, Raquel Sousa, André Braga Junqueira, and Charles R Clement. 2018. “The Influence of Soil Quality and Market Orientation on Manioc (Manihot Esculenta) Varietal Choice by Smallholder Farmers along the Lower Tapajós River, Pará, Brazil.” Human Ecology 46 (2): 229–239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-9981-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choukr‐Allah, Redouane, Ragab Ragab, Lhoussaine Bouchaou, and Damià Barceló, eds. 2017. The Souss-Massa River Basin, Morocco. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51131-3.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Coomes, O T, and G J Burt. 1997. “Indigenous Market-Oriented Agroforestry: Dissecting Local Diversity in Western Amazonia.” Agroforestry Systems 37 (1): 27–44. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005834816188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coomes, Oliver T, and Natalie Ban. 2004. “Cultivated Plant Species Diversity in Home Gardens of an Amazonian Peasant Village in Northeastern Peru.” Economic Botany 58 (3): 420–34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4256836.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, David. 2008. Moroccan Households in the World Economy: Labor and Inequality in a Berber Village. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, Adam S, Jason D Hill, Craig A Chase, Ann M Johanns, and Matt Liebman. 2012. “Increasing Cropping System Diversity Balances Productivity, Profitability and Environmental Health.” PloS One 7 (10): e47149. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047149.

  • Falco, Salvatore Di, Ivan Penov, Aleksi Aleksiev, and Tom M van Rensburg. 2010. “Agrobiodiversity, Farm Profits and Land Fragmentation: Evidence from Bulgaria.” Land Use Policy 27 (3): 763–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.10.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faysse, Nicolas. 2015. “The Rationale of the Green Morocco Plan: Missing Links between Goals and Implementation.” The Journal of North African Studies 20 (4): 622–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2015.1053112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frison, Emile A, Jeremy Cherfas, and Toby Hodgkin. 2011. “Agricultural Biodiversity Is Essential for a Sustainable Improvement in Food and Nutrition Security.” Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su3010238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Yi, Jaqueline. 2014. “Market Participation and Agro-Biodiversity Loss: The Case of Native Chili Varieties in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru.” Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su6020615.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gauchan, Devendra, Melinda Smale, Nigel Maxted, Mathew Cole, Bhuwon R Sthapit, Devra Jarvs, and Madhusudan P Upadhyay. 2005. “Socioeconomic and Agroecological Determinants of Conserving Diversity On-Farm: The Case of Rice Genetic Resources in Nepal.” Nepal Agriculture Research Journal 6: 89–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gellner, Ernest, and Charles Micaud, eds. 1972. Arabs and Berbers: From Tribe to Nation in North Africa (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath and Co., 1972). Pp. 448. London: D. C. Heath and Company.

  • Giuliani, Alessandra 2007. Developing Markets for Agrobiodiversity: Securing Livelihoods in Dryland Areas. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781849770972.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, LS. 2003. “Women in the Garden and Kitchen: The Role of Cuisine in the Conservation of Traditional House Lot Crops among Yucatec Mayan Immigrants.” In Women and Plants: Gender Relations in Biodiversity Management and Conservation, edited by PL Howard, 51–65. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guest, Greg. 2000. “Using Guttman Scaling to Rank Wealth: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Data.” Field Methods 12 (4): 346–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X0001200406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haut-Commissariat au Plan du Maroc. 2014. General Census of Population and Housing 2014. www.hcp.ma

  • Hmimsa, Younes, and Mohammed Ater. 2008. “Agrodiversity in the Traditional Agrosystems of the Rif Mountains (North of Morocco).” Biodiversity 9 (1–2): 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2008.9712890.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPES-Food. 2016. From Uniformity to Diversity: A Paradigm Shift from Industrial Agriculture to Diversifed Agroecological Systems. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food systems. http://www.ipes-food.org/.

  • Johns, Timothy, Bronwen Powell, Patrick Maundu, and Pablo B Eyzaguirre. 2013. “Agricultural Biodiversity as a Link between Traditional Food Systems and Contemporary Development, Social Integrity and Ecological Health.” Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 93 (14): 3433–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.6351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Andrew D. 2017. “Critical Review of the Emerging Research Evidence on Agricultural Biodiversity, Diet Diversity, and Nutritional Status in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.” Nutrition Reviews 75 (10): 769–82. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nux040.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khoury, Colin K, Harold A Achicanoy, Anne D Bjorkman, Carlos Navarro-Racines, Luigi Guarino, Ximena Flores-Palacios, Johannes M M Engels, et al. 2016. “Origins of Food Crops Connect Countries Worldwide.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283 (1832): 20160792. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0792.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khoury, Colin K, Anne D Bjorkman, Hannes Dempewolf, Julian Ramirez-Villegas, Luigi Guarino, Andy Jarvis, Loren H Rieseberg, and Paul C Struik. 2014. “Increasing Homogeneity in Global Food Supplies and the Implications for Food Security.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (11): 4001–6. http://www.pnas.org/content/111/11/4001.abstract.

  • Luo, Gongwen, Ville-Petri Friman, Huan Chen, Manqiang Liu, Min Wang, Shiwei Guo, Ning Ling, and Qirong Shen. 2018. “Long-Term Fertilization Regimes Drive the Abundance and Composition of N-Cycling-Related Prokaryotic Groups via Soil Particle-Size Differentiation.” Soil Biology and Biochemistry 116: 213–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2017.10.015.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Major, Julie, Charles R Clement, and Antonio DiTommaso. 2005. “Influence of Market Orientation on Food Plant Diversity of Farms Located on Amazonian Dark Earth in the Region of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.” Economic Botany 59 (1): 77–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchane, Ahmed, Yves Tramblay, Lahoucine Hanich, Denis Ruelland, and Lionel Jarlan. 2017. “Climate Change Impacts on Surface Water Resources in the Rheraya Catchment (High Atlas, Morocco).” Hydrological Sciences Journal 62 (6): 979–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2017.1283042.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCord, Paul F, Michael Cox, Mikaela Schmitt-Harsh, and Tom Evans. 2015. “Crop Diversification as a Smallholder Livelihood Strategy within Semi-Arid Agricultural Systems near Mount Kenya.” Land Use Policy 42: 738–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.10.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medail, Frederic, and Pierre Quezel. 1997. “Hot-Spots Analysis for Conservation of Plant Biodiversity in the Mediterranean Basin.” Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 84 (1): 112–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/2399957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meehan, Timothy D, Ben P Werling, Douglas A Landis, and Claudio Gratton. 2011. “Agricultural Landscape Simplification and Insecticide Use in the Midwestern United States.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (28): 11500 LP-11505. http://www.pnas.org/content/108/28/11500.abstract.

  • Montanari, Bernadette. 2013. “The Future of Agriculture in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco: The Need to Integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge.” In The Future of Mountain Agriculture, edited by Stefan Mann, 51–72. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33584-6_5.

  • Myers, Norman, Russell A Mittermeier, Cristina G Mittermeier, Gustavo AB Da Fonseca, and Jennifer Kent. 2000. “Biodiversity Hotspots for Conservation Priorities.” Nature 403 (6772): 853–58. https://doi.org/10.1038/35002501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Padoch, C, J Chota Inuma, W De Jong, and J Unruh. 1985. “Amazonian Agroforestry: A Market-Oriented System in Peru.” Agroforestry Systems 3 (1): 47–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00045738.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patel, Raj, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Lizzie Shumba, and Laifolo Dakishoni. 2015. “Cook, Eat, Man, Woman: Understanding the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, Nutritionism and Its Alternatives from Malawi.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 42 (1): 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2014.971767.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pautasso, Marco, Guntra Aistara, Adeline Barnaud, Sophie Caillon, Pascal Clouvel, Oliver T Coomes, Marc Delêtre, et al. 2013. “Seed Exchange Networks for Agrobiodiversity Conservation. A Review.” Agronomy for Sustainable Development 33 (1): 151–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-012-0089-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perrault-Archambault, Mathilde, and Oliver T Coomes. 2008. “Distribution of Agrobiodiversity in Home Gardens along the Corrientes River, Peruvian Amazon.” Economic Botany 62 (2): 109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-008-9010-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, B, S Thilsted, A Ickowitz, C Termote, T Sunderland, and A Herforth. 2015. “Improving Diets with Wild and Cultivated Biodiversity from across the Landscape.” Food Security 7 (3): 535–554. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-015-0466-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, Bronwen. 2004. “Dietary Patterns, the Nutrition Transition and Agricultural Diversity in Morocco.” University of Kent.

  • Powell, Bronwen, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Sera L. Young, and Timothy Johns. 2017. “The Determinants of Dietary Diversity and Nutrition: Ethnonutrition Knowledge of Local People in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 13 (23). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-017-0150-2.

  • Progressio. 2009. “Seed Saving and Climate Change in Zimbabwe.” Progressio Zimbabwe. London and Harare.

  • Rana, Ram Bahadur, Chris Garforth, Bhuwon Sthapit, and Devra Jarvis. 2007. “Influence of Socio-Economic and Cultural Factors in Rice Varietal Diversity Management on-Farm in Nepal.” Agriculture and Human Values 24 (4): 461–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-007-9082-0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renard, Delphine, and David Tilman. 2019. “National Food Production Stabilized by Crop Diversity.” Nature 571 (7764): 257–60. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1316-y.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rochdane, Saloua, Barbara Reichert, Mohammed Messouli, Abdelaziz Babqiqi, and Mohammed Yacoubi Khebiza. 2012. “Climate Change Impacts on Water Supply and Demand in Rheraya Watershed (Morocco), with Potential Adaptation Strategies.” Water 4 (1). https://doi.org/10.3390/w4010028.

  • Rueda, Ximena, and Eric F Lambin. 2013. “Responding to Globalization: Impacts of Certification on Colombian Small-Scale Coffee Growers.” Ecology and Society 18 (3). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05595-180321.

  • Sánchez-Bayo, Francisco, and Kris A.G. Wyckhuys. 2019. “Worldwide Decline of the Entomofauna: A Review of Its Drivers.” Biological Conservation 232 (April): 8–27. Whttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.01.020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saldaña, Johnny. 2015. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sardaro, Ruggiero, Stefania Girone, Claudio Acciani, Francesco Bozzo, Alessandro Petrontino, and Vincenzo Fucilli. 2016. “Agro-Biodiversity of Mediterranean Crops: Farmers’ Preferences in Support of a Conservation Programme for Olive Landraces.” Biological Conservation 201: 210–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.06.033.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonneaux, Vincent, Aouatif Cheggour, Charles Deschamps, Florent Mouillot, Olivier Cerdan, and Yves Le Bissonnais. 2015. “Land Use and Climate Change Effects on Soil Erosion in a Semi-Arid Mountainous Watershed (High Atlas, Morocco).” Journal of Arid Environments 122: 64–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.06.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skarbø, Kristine. 2014. “The Cooked Is the Kept: Factors Shaping the Maintenance of Agro-Biodiversity in the Andes.” Human Ecology 42 (5): 711–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9685-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tapia, Mario E. 2000. “Mountain Agrobiodiversity in Peru.” Mountain Research and Development 20 (3): 220–25. https://doi.org/10.1659/0276-4741(2000)020[0220:MAIP]2.0.CO;2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tesfaye, Wondimagegn, and Nyasha Tirivayi. 2020. “Crop Diversity, Household Welfare and Consumption Smoothing under Risk: Evidence from Rural Uganda.” World Development 125: 104686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104686.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrupp, Lori Ann. 2002. “Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security: The Valuable Role of Agrobiodiversity for Sustainable Agriculture.” International Affairs 76 (2): 283–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.00133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trinh, L N, J W Watson, N N Hue, N N De, N V Minh, P Chu, B R Sthapit, and P B Eyzaguirre. 2003. “Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Development in Vietnamese Home Gardens.” Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 97 (1): 317–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8809(02)00228-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vadez, Vincent, Victoria Reyes-García, Ricardo A Godoy, V Lilian Apaza, Elizabeth Byron, Tomás Huanca, William R Leonard, Eddy Pérez, and David Wilkie. 2004. “Brief Communication: Does Integration to the Market Threaten Agricultural Diversity? Panel and Cross-Sectional Data From a Horticultural-Foraging Society in the Bolivian Amazon.” Human Ecology 32 (5): 635–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-004-6100-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Nicholas E, Amanda R Carrico, Indika Edirisinghe, and P A Jayamini Champika. 2018. “Assessing the Impacts of Agrobiodiversity Maintenance on Food Security Among Farming Households in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone.” Economic Botany 72 (2): 196–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-018-9418-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, Chen, Guangli Tian, Gongwen Luo, Yali Kong, Junjie Guo, Min Wang, Shiwei Guo, Ning Ling, and Qirong Shen. 2018. “N-Fertilizer-Driven Association between the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community and Diazotrophic Community Impacts Wheat Yield.” Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 254: 191–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.11.029.

  • Zimmerer, Karl S. 2014. “Conserving Agrobiodiversity amid Global Change, Migration, and Nontraditional Livelihood Networks.” Ecology and Society 19 (2). http://www.jstor.org/stable/26269520.

  • Zimmerer, Karl S. 2013. “The Compatibility of Agricultural Intensification in a Global Hotspot of Smallholder Agrobiodiversity (Bolivia).” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (8): 2769 LP-2774. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1216294110.

  • Zimmerer, Karl S. 1996. Changing Fortunes: Biodiversity and Peasant Livelihood in the Peruvian Andes. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerer, Karl S. 2010a. “Biological Diversity in Agriculture and Global Change.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 35 (1): 137–66. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-040309-113840.

  • Zimmerer, Karl S. 2010b. “Woodlands and Agrobiodiversity in Irrigation Landscapes amidst Global Change: Bolivia, 1990–2002.” The Professional Geographer 62 (3): 335–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2010.483631.

  • Zimmerer, Karl S. 2011. “The Landscape Technology of Spate Irrigation amid Development Changes: Assembling the Links to Resources, Livelihoods, and Agrobiodiversity-Food in the Bolivian Andes.” Global Environmental Change 21 (3): 917–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.04.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerer, Karl S, Judith A Carney, and Steven J Vanek. 2015. “Sustainable Smallholder Intensification in Global Change? Pivotal Spatial Interactions, Gendered Livelihoods, and Agrobiodiversity.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 14: 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.03.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerer, Karl S, and Stef de Haan. 2017. “Agrobiodiversity and a Sustainable Food Future.” Nature Plants 3 (4): 17047. https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerer, Karl S, Stef de Haan, Andrew D Jones, Hilary Creed-Kanashiro, Milka Tello, Miluska Carrasco, Krysty Meza, et al. 2019. “The Biodiversity of Food and Agriculture (Agrobiodiversity) in the Anthropocene: Research Advances and Conceptual Framework.” Anthropocene 25: 100192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the farmers who gave their time, knowledge, and hospitality; the High Atlas Foundation for supporting this work; Hassan Alkorsal for being a passionate research assistant; Karl Zimmerer for help with the design and conceptualization of this study; Cameron Franz and Lizhao Ge for assistance in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data; comments from Brian King, Ruchi Patel, Sara Cavallo, and Saumya Vaishnava, as well as anonymous reviewers; and Penn State’s Department of Geography, Center for Landscape Dynamics, and Africana Research Center for funding this research.

Funding

This study was funded by the Department of Geography, Center for Landscape Dynamics, and the Africana Research Center at Pennsylvania State University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Zachary A. Goldberg

  2. Department of Geography and African Studies Program, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Bronwen Powell

  3. Department of Anthropology and African Studies Program, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Abderrahim Ouarghidi

Authors
  1. Zachary A. Goldberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bronwen Powell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Abderrahim Ouarghidi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zachary A. Goldberg.

Ethics declarations

Informed Consent

This study underwent research ethics review by the Penn State University Institutional Review Board (Study# 00009839). Permission to conduct research was then obtained from the provincial, commune, and village authorities. All participants partook in an informed consent process.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Goldberg, Z.A., Powell, B. & Ouarghidi, A. Determinants of Smallholder Maintenance of Crop Diversity in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. Hum Ecol 49, 453–465 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00248-7

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00248-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation