Best practices for agroecology & climate change resilience in the dry corridor: Views from five regions in Honduras

Siles, P.; Guillen, J.F.; Obando, D.; Wollenberg, E. (2025) Best practices for agroecology & climate change resilience in the dry corridor: Views from five regions in Honduras. 15 p.

KEY MESSAGES

• Farmers and technicians identified nine bundles of agroecological and conventional practices that achieve climate change resilience and environmental outcomes.
• The most common agroecology technical practices were soil and nutrient management, integrated pest management, diversification and agroforestry.
• Agroecological practices mostly increase resilience to variable rainfall. Few reduce the climate hazards of high temperature or extreme rainfall: agroforestry, other tree planting, intercropping, coffee shade management buffer high temperatures and soil erosion control, such as contours and drainage, protects against extreme rainfall.
• Drip irrigation and water harvesting practices are a key means for addressing water stress in the Dry Corridor and should be included in agroecological technical packages.
• Bundles of agroecological and conventional practices created complementarity and synergies that enabled achieving multiple climate and livelihood outcomes.
• Women’s groups favoured practices focused on food safety and security, biodiversity of cultivars, community-level resources, and farm and landscape system interventions.
• Economic resilience, due to farm- and crop-level diversification, may be as or more important for resilience of a specific crop like coffee or maize and beans.
• Most projects promoting agroecology in Honduras preferred to base their decisions on demonstration sites, self-generated data, or a trusted associate or community member rather than experts, case studies, or scientific data and papers.
• Supporting exchange among farmer-support organizations in field regions can accelerate learning and technical capacity about priority practices.
• Future research priorities are (1) how well do agroecological practices and bundles support resilience under increasing levels and types of climate stress? And (2) options for economic and social resilience and safety nets when agricultural systems fail.