Farmers’ perceptions of agriculture damage by the 1999-2014 eruptions of Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador, reveal the importance of tephra grain size, crop development stage and site-specific factors for assessing crop vulnerability to tephra hazard

Ligot, Noa;Guevara, Alicia;Delmelle, Pierre
(2022) Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group annual meeting 2022 (vVMSG) — Location: online (10.January.2022)

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Agriculture is an economic pillar for the least developed countries. When these regions host explosive volcanoes, a serious risk for agricultural production arises as crops endure various injuries from tephra fall. However, our knowledge of crop vulnerability to ashfall is still fragmentary and new information is needed in order to strengthen the capacities of governments, response and recovery organizations, communities and individuals to effectively anticipate, respond to and recover from the agricultural impacts of a volcanic eruption. In order to gain new insights into the factors that govern tephra impacts on crops, we collected the farmers’ perceptions of crop damage and production losses by tephra in 15 villages affected by the 1999-2014 eruptions of Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador. The level of tephra-induced damage depends highly on crop morphological characteristics and development stage; the timing of the latter is dependent, among other factors, on altitude. Using these observations, we illustrate how crop vulnerability fluctuates spatially and temporarily in the surveyed area. The study also reveals that fine tephra (< 63 µm) is more harmful to crops than tephra containing coarser particles. The farmers responded to the tephra hazard by favouring crops more resistant to tephra, a practice that has reduced crop diversity.
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Ligot, N., Guevara, A., & Delmelle, P. (2022). Farmers’ perceptions of agriculture damage by the 1999-2014 eruptions of Tungurahua volcano, Ecuador, reveal the importance of tephra grain size, crop development stage and site-specific factors for assessing crop vulnerability to tephra hazard. Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group annual meeting 2022 (vVMSG), online. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/241130