UTADEO Lead Rodrigo Gil Castañeda, PhD Professor, Natural Sciences and Engineering Email: rodrigo.gil@utadeo.edu.co
Penn State Lead Rachel Brennan, PhD, PE Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering Email: rab44@psu.edu
Project Summary
Subsistence farming represents the main activity of vulnerable and marginalized smallholders in Magdalena, Colombia. Although tropical conditions make year-round food production possible, it is limited by factors such as low-tech infrastructure, mismanagement practices, and limited access to extension and financial services. The overall goal of this seed grant project is to pilot a sustainable Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus model to improve the livelihoods of smallholders residing in the surrounding areas of Santa Marta, the state capital of Magdalena.
The main activities include:
1) Evaluate the socioeconomic conditions, cultural identity, education, and health of the local smallholder communities in the peri-urban areas of Santa Marta
2) Assess access and usage of water, energy, and food resources, and the interactions between them, to enable a baseline environmental assessment
3) Perform a gender-responsive participatory appraisal to determine and prioritize WEF needs appropriate for these communities
4) Co-design an agricultural production area to pilot the WEF-Nexus approach to improve human health and economic well-being over the baseline, and assess the sustainability of the integrated solutions
5) Construct a locally-adapted comprehensive research proposal to extramural sponsors to implement the WEF-Nexus model for improving both smallholder livelihoods and environmental sustainability for resilience in a changing climate
The project aims to sensitize smallholders about opportunities to improve their current livelihoods by creating a common understanding of the interrelationships between water, energy, and food. This will be achieved through the co-development of a shared vision regarding the integrated and sustainable use of the components of water, energy, and food.
