Mayan Traditional Knowledge on Weather Forecasting: Who Contributes to Whom in Coping With Climate Change?

Despite international commitments to integrate indigenous peoples and their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in actions combating climate change, their inclusion remains limited. Integrating TEK with scientific knowledge has become particularly important in sectors such as agriculture, which both contributes to and is affected by climate change. While there is a general recognition that integrating TEK will contribute to climate change adaptation, agricultural interventions have made little progress in achieving this due to the assumption of a clear divide between TEK and scientific knowledge. This paper considers that knowledge integration is already occurring, but in contexts of economic, sociocultural, and political inequalities. We elaborate on the case of traditional weather forecasting methods used by Mayan indigenous farmers in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula to propose a social justice perspective for knowledge integration in climate change interventions. Using information from three studies conducted between 2016 and 2019, we first explain the importance of weather and traditional weather forecast methods for indigenous Mayan farmers. Later we describe in detail both these methods and their links with Mayan cosmology. Findings show how weather phenomena such as drought and hurricanes are main concerns for milpa farming. They illustrate the diversity of traditional short, medium, and long-term weather forecast methods based on observations from nature and the sky. Farmers also perform rituals that are related to their Mayan gods and goddess. As TEK not only defines agricultural calendars but also reproduces Mayan culture, we discuss what is needed for its integration into actions combating climate change. We use a rights-based approach that considers the economic, cultural, and political scales of justice to equally allocate resources and benefits for traditional knowledge systems, recognize indigenous values and worldviews avoiding cultural harms, and accomplish indigenous self-determination through equal representation. As a result, we hope to incentivize development actors engaged in agricultural interventions on climate change to critically reflect and examine power dynamics and relations when working with indigenous communities

On continuities and discontinuities : The making of technology-driven interventions and the encounter with the MasAgro Programme in Mexico

Most of our work and knowledge as researchers in agriculture is taken to farmers in the form of technology-driven interventions. The central assumption behind these projects is that farmers can improve their livelihoods by increasing their crop yields and crop productivity. Over time, due to the criticisms on how these modern technologies failed to include the most marginalised people and the negative environmental impacts of their use, a call for participatory approaches to development, addressing the environmental agenda, human rights and social justice and the role of a socially responsible civil society and industry has emerged. Yet there remains a need for using modern technologies to increase crop productivity to lift farmers out from poverty. For example, the World Bank indicates that to achieve the Sustainable Development goal of “Zero hunger”, the small-holder farmers will play a crucial role by increasing their yield and productivity while also using sustainable food systems. Hence, researchers have a role as key actors in developing modern technologies that fit the new challenges. In Mexico researchers have played a central role in designing of technology-driven interventions that seek to increase agricultural productivity. Researchers have offered silver bullets, i.e. technologies that promise to serve as simple solutions to complex problems, to politicians. Mexican agricultural policy historically has promoted agricultural production based on modern technologies to increase yields through several interventions, from the Mexican Agricultural Programme in the 1940’s to the Sustainable Modernisation of the Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) Programme launched in 2010. Some authors argue that this model has subsidised inequality because the winners of these policies have historically been the same group of well-endowed farmers. Most of the small farmers, subsistence farmers and landless agricultural labourers have historically been excluded from programmes to engage them as producers. Yet, the effectiveness of these interventions is often unclear, which leads us to wonder why some technologies and paradigms are dominant over others and therefore continue to be promoted and implemented, despite the uncertainty about their effectiveness? and why some other technologies and approaches are discontinued or considered irrelevant in global narrative and agendas? Thus, we need to look at our work critically through the lens of political agronomy to explain how agendas are negotiated and what the underlying assumptions are. My research focus on understanding how mechanisms are shaping processes of continuity and discontinuity in technology-driven interventions like MasAgro Programme in Mexico – reinforcing the prevalence of particular technologies and groups of beneficiaries and excluding others. In doing so, I used  the case of MasAgro Programme, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to analyse processes of processes of continuity and discontinuity and social inclusion and exclusion. My first case study (Chapter 2) is contextual and focuses on the social life of MasAgro Programme in Mexico. Here I explore the mechanisms that allowed the emergence of MasAgro Programme and how it gave continuity to the agricultural production paradigm as MasAgro Programme was initially portrayed as a second Green Revolution. MasAgro Programme found continuity over three different government periods, which is unusual for programmes in Mexico depending on government funds. Thus, I investigate how MasAgro Programme and other technologies and linked interventions encountered causing continuity of some of their processes but discontinuity of others. In the end, I show how there is an interdependence among actors, specifically among the government and researchers and how they converge at one point to negotiate agendas causing processes of continuity, discontinuity, social inclusion and exclusion. The second case study (Chapter 3) focuses on Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices in the region of Bajío Mexico. I study what mechanisms enabled CA technology to find continuity through several interventions for a period of 30 years. At the same time, I look at how processes of discontinuity interacted with that apparent continuity in CA technology research. I apply the boundary concept to analyse who contributed to the making of those CA-like technology interventions, what their interests and agendas were and therefore who was included and excluded. I show how research and politics are mutually dependent and how they generate a discontinuity of project interventions which, paradoxically, represent a continuity of agendas and research processes. In my third case study (Chapter 4), I explore how native maize cultivation continues to persist in Yavesía, an indigenous village in Oaxaca, despite agricultural policy in Mexico having been designed to force discontinuity on native maize cultivation. I situate this case study in the broader debate of agricultural production and traditionality paradigms for maize cultivation in Mexico. I show how, for the farmers of Yavesía, the encounter with MasAgro Programme is one of many that represent opportunities to give continuity to their ‘comunalidad’ linked to maize cultivation” as a mode of making a living. With this chapter I also show some of the intangible meanings of maize cultivation that cannot be captured in a productivity oriented rational but at the same time how the meaning of traditionality changes over time around maize cultivation in an attempt by farmers to adapt to a changing world. The fourth case study (Chapter 5) focuses on a mobile phone-based SMS system called MasAgro Mobile (MVV), which provides farmers with farming information to empower them in their practice as farmers. MVV found continuity over different government periods as did the larger MasAgro Programme, but also by different institutions. Thus, I explore how it found continuity but also how learning was driven by processes of continuity and discontinuity and what mechanisms allowed or prevented that lessons were learned. With this case study I show the political dimensions shaping how learning occurs and why some lessons are taken on board whereas others do not. Finally, in the discussion (Chapter 6), I summarise the answer to my research question on how processes of continuity and discontinuity take place based on my empirical cases and lead to processes of inclusion and exclusion. I also present a final reflection on the practical implications of my findings and how to move forward

The evolution of the MasAgro hubs: responsiveness and serendipity as drivers of agricultural innovation in a dynamic and heterogeneous context

Purpose: Little is known about effective ways to operationalize agricultural innovation processes. We use the MasAgro program in Mexico (which aims to increase maize and wheat productivity, profitability and sustainability), and the experiences of middle level ‘hub managers’, to understand how innovation processes occur in heterogeneous and changing contexts. Design/methodology/approach: We use a comparative case study analysis involving research tools such as documentary review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and reflection workshops with key actors. Findings: Our research shows how a program, that initially had a relatively narrow technology focus, evolved towards an innovation system approach. The adaptive management of such a process was in response to context-specific challenges and opportunities. In the heterogeneous context of Mexico this results in diverse ways of operationalization at the hub level, leading to different collaborating partners and technology portfolios. Practical implications: MasAgro experiences merit analysis in the light of national public efforts to transform agricultural advisory services and accommodate pluralistic agricultural extension approaches in Latin America. Such efforts need long-term coherent macro level visions, frameworks and support, while the serendipitous nature of the process requires meso-level implementers to respond and adapt to and move the innovation process forward. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the debate on how to operationalize large programs by showing that the innovation support arrangements enacted in the field should allow for diversity and have a degree of flexibility to accommodate heterogeneous demands from farmers in different contexts as well as continuous changes in the politico- institutional environment

Rethinking hierarchies of evidence for sustainable food systems

Indigenous Peoples’ and other traditional knowledge systems are often deemed to be ‘unscientific’ within conventional hierarchies of evidence-making. Science–policy processes to build a legacy from the commitments of the UN Food Systems Summit must ensure that due recognition, acceptance and prominence are given to traditional knowledge systems

Ethnobiology Phase VI: Decolonizing Institutions, Projects, and Scholarship

Ethnobiology, like many fields, was shaped by early Western imperial efforts to colonize people and lands around the world and extract natural resources. Those legacies and practices persist today and continue to influence the institutions ethnobiologists are a part of, how they carry out research, and their personal beliefs and actions. Various authors have previously outlined five overlapping "phases" of ethnobiology. Here, we argue that ethnobiology should move toward a sixth phase in which scholars and practitioners must actively challenge colonialism, racism, and oppressive structures embedded within their institutions, projects, and themselves. As an international group of ethnobiologists and scholars from allied fields, we identified key topics and priorities at three levels: at the institutional scale, we argue for repatriation/rematriation of biocultural heritage, accessibility of published work, and realignment of priorities to support community-driven research. At the level of projects, we emphasize the need for mutual dialogue, reciprocity, community research self-sufficiency, and research questions that support sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities over lands and waters. Finally, for individual scholars, we support self-reflection on language use, co-authorship, and implicit bias. We advocate for concrete actions at each of these levels to move the field further toward social justice, antiracism, and decolonization.La etnobiología, como muchos otros campos, ha sido moldeada por los esfuerzos imperialistas occidentales para colonizar gente y tierras alrededor del mundo y extraer sus recursos naturales. Estos legados y prácticas aún persisten hoy en día y continúan influyendo en las instituciones donde los etnobiólogos son parte, las formas en cómo desarrollan la investigación, sus creencias personales y acciones. Varios autores han resaltado anteriormente cinco fases superpuestas de la etnobiología. En este documento, nosotros argumentamos que la etnobiología debe moverse hacia una sexta fase en la que los académicos y practicantes deben activamente confrontar el colonialismo, el racismo y las estructuras opresivas que están embebidas dentro de sus instituciones, proyectos y de ellos mismos. Como un grupo internacional de etnobiólogos y académicos de campos aliados, identificamos temas centrales y prioridades en 3 niveles: a nivel institucional, nosotros abogamos por la repatriación/rematriación del patrimonio biocultural, la accesibilidad a los trabajos publicados, y la realineación de prioridades para apoyar la investigación liderada por las comunidades. A nivel de proyectos, nosotros enfatizamos la necesidad de un diálogo mutuo, de reciprocidad, que las comunidades sean autosuficientes en cuanto a investigación. Además, que las preguntas de investigación apoyen la soberanía de los Pueblos Indígenas y las Comunidades Locales sobre sus tierras y aguas. Finalmente, en el caso de los académicos, apoyamos los procesos de reflexión interna acerca del uso del lenguaje, las coautorías y los sesgos implícitos. Nosotros abogamos por acciones concretas en cada uno de estos niveles para movilizar a la etnobiología para que sea socialmente justa, anti-racista y descolonizada

X chromosome inactivation does not necessarily determine the severity of the phenotype in Rett syndrome patients

WOS: 000481590200024PubMed ID: 31427717Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurological disorder usually caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. Since the MECP2 gene is located on the X chromosome, X chromosome inactivation (XCI) could play a role in the wide range of phenotypic variation of RTT patients; however, classical methylation-based protocols to evaluate XCI could not determine whether the preferentially inactivated X chromosome carried the mutant or the wild-type allele. Therefore, we developed an allele-specific methylation-based assay to evaluate methylation at the loci of several recurrent MECP2 mutations. We analyzed the XCI patterns in the blood of 174 RTT patients, but we did not find a clear correlation between XCI and the clinical presentation. We also compared XCI in blood and brain cortex samples of two patients and found differences between XCI patterns in these tissues. However, RTT mainly being a neurological disease complicates the establishment of a correlation between the XCI in blood and the clinical presentation of the patients. Furthermore, we analyzed MECP2 transcript levels and found differences from the expected levels according to XCI. Many factors other than XCI could affect the RTT phenotype, which in combination could influence the clinical presentation of RTT patients to a greater extent than slight variations in the XCI pattern.Spanish Ministry of Health (Instituto de Salud Carlos III/FEDER) [PI15/01159]; Crowdfunding program PRECIPITA, from the Spanish Ministry of Health (Fundacion Espanola para la Ciencia y la Tecnologia); Catalan Association for Rett Syndrome; Fondobiorett; Mi Princesa RettWe thank all patients and their families who contributed to this study. The work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Health (Instituto de Salud Carlos III/FEDER, PI15/01159); Crowdfunding program PRECIPITA, from the Spanish Ministry of Health (Fundacion Espanola para la Ciencia y la Tecnologia); the Catalan Association for Rett Syndrome; Fondobiorett and Mi Princesa Rett