Non-Traditional Export Crops and Household Livelihood Strategies: Panel Data Evidence from Guatemala

This study uses a unique panel dataset that spans a 20-year period (1985-2005), and estimates the effect of household non-traditional agricultural export (NTX) adoption on changes in livelihood orientation and participation in non-farm employment in Santiago Sacatepéquez municipality of Guatemala. Given the heterogeneity in adoption patterns, it provides differential impact estimates based on a classification of households that takes into account the timing and duration of NTX adoption. Our findings suggest that over time, household reliance on off-farm income and access to non-farm employment, particularly self-employment and blue collar work, increased in the surveyed communities, irrespective of snow pea adoption. However, the extent of change varied across groups. Although the magnitudes of increase in the aforementioned outcomes among early long-term adopters and late adopters were not statistically significant with respect to the trends among non-adopters, early adopters who withdrew from NTX production in the medium-term exhibited greater and statistically significant increases in the same livelihood outcomes with respect to any other category.