Fragile Lands of Latin America Strategies for ... - PART - USAID

An Economic Analysis of Huastec Forest Management 189
Otomi, and other indigenous peoples), 7,500 hectares are 'managed by
4,733 smallholders (Instituto Mexicana del Cafe, 1975). The average
coffee production area is 2 ha per farm family. Almost all of this area
is under management as te'lom-type groves, sometimes referred to as
"rustic" or ''traditiona:lW fincas (Fuentes Flores, 1979). Within Mexico,
350,000 hectares are dedicated to coffee production, and it is estimated
that most of this area is under traditional management by smallholders
(Fuentes Flores, 1979).. Annual coffee yields from such systems range
from 4 to 1400 kg per hectare (Fuentes Flores, 1979).
The te'lom also yields other products sold on a more limited basis.
The market for fruits (avocado, mango, orange, sapote, mamey, and
others) is poorly developed. While some are sold in local markets, at
least half of the fruits produced go unharvested. Firewood, medicines,
and construction materials are occasionally sold, although they are
primarily harvested for the farmer's own use. Hand sawn lumber from
Cedrela odorata, tropical cedar, is sold locally. Parlor palm (Chamae-
dorea elegans Mart.) and other ornamentals are grown in te'lom shade
for sale to traveling buyers or to housewives in the few large towns in
the area.
The te'lom grove alone could not'support a family. Its success as a
viable land use depends on its integration as a subunit of a larger
diversified farmstead. .Alone, it produces a wide variety of important
subsistence goods that would otherwise be expensive or unavailable to
the farmer. It provides nutritionally important additions to the diet-
thus preventing the deterioration in diet quality that tends to accompany
the shift to commercial agriculture (Dewey, 1981; Flueret and Flueret,
1980). It produces a variety of marketable goods to supplement farm
income. It supports the production of farmyard livestock (often an
important source of cash for women). It serves important ecological
functions that farmers value. And it functions to protect the region's
genetic diversity by providing a place for native species to reproduce
so they will be available for future generations (Figure 1).
A Financial Analysis of the Huastec Farmstead
Because the te'lom system functions as an integral part of a diver-
sified farmstead, I will attempt to analyze the entire farm enterprise:
milpa, sugarcane, te'lom, and livestock. Table 1 outlines the character-
istics of the major production components of the Huastec farmstead.
Such peasant systems are not easy to study, and researchers often
choose instead to focus on single segments of the enterprise, "fractured
pieces of the whole" (Morrison 1979:633). But farm decisions and
resource allocations for a given unit of a farm are partially based on