Sally Humphries

I joined the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph in 1994. I have an undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology/Latin American Studies, a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies and a PhD in Sociology. The interdisciplinary nature of my studies, which generally focused on rural and agricultural development in Latin America, led to my receiving a Rockefeller Social Science Fellowship in Agriculture. I elected to undertake this at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia. During my fellowship at CIAT, I lived in Honduras where I initiated a pilot project in farmer participatory research with hillside farmers.  Today in Honduras there are 105 farmer research teams, involving over 1,100 farmers, which have developed from this pilot project.  Since 2000, USC-Canada, one of the country’s oldest international NGOs, has supported the majority of these farmer research teams with the backing of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). 

Research Area(s): 
Mexico and Central America
Current Project(s): 

My research, which is part and parcel of my applied development work, continues to be associated with Honduran farmer researchers and their supporting NGOs, in particular La Fundación para la Investigación Participativa con Agricultores de Honduras (FIPAH). Honduran farmer researchers have been engaged in generating new technologies, including new plant varieties produced through participatory plant breeding. By improving local landraces and better adapting them to the uncertainties of climate change, farmers have effectively increased local agro-biodiversity. At the same time, they have also acquired a strong sense of the value of biological conservation. My research interests are entirely participatory in nature, located within a theoretical framework of human and political ecology.   In addition to long term research in Honduras, I have also worked with farmers in the highlands of Central Mexico and in the Yucatan peninsula.  I am currently involved with graduate students and faculty from several Canadian unversities in a food security program (CIFSRF) supported by CIDA and IDRC in southern India.

Selected Publications: 

2012 Humphries, S, Classen, L., Jimenez, J., Sierra, F., Gallardo, O.,  Gomez, M . Opening Cracks for the Transgression of Social Boundaries: An Evaluation of the Gender Impacts of Farmer Research Teams in Honduras. World Development.

2012. Humphries, S., Jimenez, J., Gallardo, O., Gomez, M., Sierra, F., and Members of the Association of Local Agricultural Research Committees of Yorito, Victoria and Sulaco. Honduras: Rights of farmers and breeders rights in the new globalizing context. The Custodians of Biodiversity: Sharing Access and Benefits to Genetic Resources. Eds. Manuel Ruiz and Ronnie Vernooy.  UK, USA, Canada: Earthscan and IDRC.

2008. Classen, L., Humphries, S., FitzSimons, J., Kaaria, S., Jimenez, J., Sierra, S., Gallardo, O. Opening Participatory Spaces for the Most Marginal: Learning from Collective Action in the Honduran Hillsides. World Development 36(11): 2402-2420.

2008. Humphries, S., Jimenez, J., Sierra, F., Gallardo, O. Sharing in Innovation: Reflections on a Partnership to Improve Livelihoods and Resource Conservation in the Honduran Hillsides. Ed. Louise Fortmann. Participatory Research in Conservation and Rural Livelihoods: Doing Science Together. UK: Blackwell Publishing: Conservation Science and Practice Series.

2008. Almekinders, C., Humphries, S., von Lossau, S. The Effectiveness of Participatory Plant Breeding as a Tool to capitalize on Agrobiodiversity in Developing Countries. Biodiversity: Journal of Life on Earth. Special Issue: Biodiversity and Agriculture. 9(1 and 2): 41-44.

2008. Humphries, S., Gallardo, O., Jimenez, J., Sierra, F. Association of CIALs of Yorito, Victoria and Sulaco). Working with Farmer Research Committees in Participatory Bean Breeding in Honduras. Eds. M.H. Thijssen, Z. Bishaw, A. Beshir, W.S. de Boef. Farmers’ Varieties and Seeds: Supporting Informal Seed Supply in Ethiopia. Wageningen: Wageningen International.

January 2005. Humphries, S., Gallardo, O., Jimenez, J., Sierra F., and members of the Association of CIALs of Yorito, Victoria and Sulaco). ‘Linking Small Farmers to the Formal Research Sector: Lessons from a Participatory Bean Breeding Programme in Honduras’. AgREN Network Paper, Overseas Development Institute, UK http://www.odi.org.uk/agren/papers/agrenpaper_142.pdf

July 2000. Humphries S., Gonzales, J.,  Jimenez, J., Sierra, F., ‘Searching for Sustainable Land Use Practices in Honduras: Lessons from a Programme of Participatory Research with Hillside Farmers’. AgREN Network Paper, #104, Overseas Development Institute, UKhttp://www.odi.org.uk/agren/papers/agrenpaper_104.pdf

1998. Humphries, S. “Milk Cows, Migrants and Land Markets: Unraveling the Complexities of Forest to Pasture Conversion in Northern Honduras”. Economic Development and Cultural Change.  47 (1): 95-124.

1993. Humphries, S. “The Intensification of Traditional Agriculture Among Yucatec Maya Farmers: Facing up to the Dilemma of Livelihood Sustainability”. Human Ecology, 21(1): 87-102.

Email: 
shumphri@uoguelph.ca
Phone: 
53542
Office Number: 
646
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Guelph

Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1
Canada

Tel:519-824-4120 x56525
Fax:519-837-9561