Collaborative Research: Vulnerability and Resilience Among Small Farmers: An Assessment of Environmental Change, Economic Stress, and the Role of Water Management.

该项目是关于评估小农在面临环境变化和经济转型时的脆弱性，重点是提高农村农业社区的复原力。世界各地的传统农民面临着来自环境变化和区域经济条件变化的多重压力。造成和克服这一脆弱性的关键因素之一是获得和使用水。因此，这项研究将回答两个主要的研究问题：1)作为环境变化和经济结构调整的综合结果，农民面临什么脆弱性？2)在面对不确定性和变化时，不同的供水系统在增强小规模农业的复原力方面有什么作用？这些问题将在牙买加西南部进行研究，牙买加是一个为国内市场生产大量小农粮食的地区。该项目将采用混合方法研究设计，将环境数据的收集和分析与对农民知识、认知和适应不断变化的区域经济条件的定性调查相结合。这项研究建立在牙买加之前的研究基础上，这些研究表明，农民承受着来自环境变化和市场不稳定的压力，这种情况在文献中被描述为“双重暴露”。这项研究旨在记录这些压力的性质，并调查不同的水管理策略在建立复原力方面所起的作用。这些成果将大大增加脆弱性和复原力的理论，并有助于更好地了解加勒比和其他发展中区域农村农业社区对环境变化的适应情况。因此，这项工作解决了学者和政策制定者感兴趣的重要问题，他们工作在经济发展和环境变化与可持续发展的交汇点上。这个项目将在几个方面为教学、培训和学习做出贡献。通过开设两门课程，将增加北卡罗来纳大学威尔明顿分校(UNC-W)和东卡罗来纳大学(ECU)以及蒙纳州西印度群岛大学(UWI)学生的学习机会。其中一项是为北卡罗来纳大学和欧洲联盟学生开设的暑期实地课程，重点是环境变化和可持续发展，该课程将与威斯康星州大学的课程相协调。第二个将是一个关于环境变化的协作性在线课程，向所有三个校区的学生开放，并通过一个创新的“全球课堂”视频会议设施进行。环境数据收集仪器的安装将加强牙买加的研究基础设施，并为长期监测和能力建设提供重要机会。最后，拟议的项目具有重大的潜在社会效益。这项工作的结果将与牙买加研究界和政策制定者分享，他们向我们强调了更好地了解区域环境状况的重要性。这项研究的见解有助于评估加勒比其他小岛屿发展中国家的脆弱性和复原力，并有助于制定该区域的适应战略，预计该区域在未来几年将受到环境变化和全球经济结构调整的干扰。

This project is about assessing the vulnerability of small farmers in the face of environmental change and economic transformation, with a focus on improving the resilience of rural agricultural communities. Traditional farmers in various places around the world are faced with multiple stressors arising from both environmental change and changing regional economic conditions. One of the key factors in creating and overcoming this vulnerability is the access to and use of water. Accordingly, this study will answer two primary research questions: 1) what vulnerability do farmers face as a combined result of environmental change and economic restructuring? and 2) what role do different water delivery systems have in enhancing the resilience of small-scale agriculture in the face of uncertainty and change? These questions will be examined in southwestern Jamaica, a region with extensive smallholder food production for the domestic market. The project will engage a mixed methods research design that combines the collection and analysis of environmental data with a qualitative investigation of farmer knowledge, perception, and adaptation to changing regional economic conditions. The study builds on prior research in Jamaica, which demonstrated that farmers experience stress from environmental change and market instability, a condition that has been described in the literature as 'double exposure.' This study aims to document the nature of these stresses, and also to investigate the role played by different water management strategies in building resilience. The results should add significantly to theories of vulnerability and resilience, and also contribute to a better understanding of environmental change adaptation in rural agricultural communities throughout the Caribbean and other developing regions. As such, this work addresses important questions that are of interest to scholars and policy-makers who work at the intersection of economic development and environmental change and sustainability.This project will contribute to teaching, training, and learning in several ways. Learning opportunities for students at both the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNC-W) and East Carolina University (ECU) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) at Mona will be enhanced through the development of two courses. One of these will be a summer field course for UNC-W and ECU students focused on environmental change and sustainable development, which will be coordinated with the curricular offerings at UWI. The second will be a collaborative, online course on environmental change, open to students on all three campuses, and run through an innovative 'global classroom' videoconference facility. The installation of instruments for the environmental data collection will enhance the infrastructure for research in Jamaica and provide important opportunities for long-term monitoring and capacity building. Finally, the proposed project has significant potential benefits to society. Results from this work will be shared with the Jamaican research community and policy-makers, who have stressed to us the importance of developing a better understanding of regional environmental conditions. Insights from this study can help to inform assessments of vulnerability and resilience for other small island developing states in the Caribbean, and can assist in the development of adaptation strategies in a region that is expected to experience disruptions from both environmental change and global economic restructuring in the coming years.