Perevolotsky, A.

The relationship between crop and livestock production in mixed agropastoral farming systems in Piura Department, Peru, is examined at the regional and household level. Interrelations between the production sectors represent an adaptation to unstable conditions in a number of respects: ecological (dramatic changes in rainfall and pasturage), economic (both regional and national), and political (estate-peasant relations, the agrarian reform). At both regional and household level, integration of crop production and goat herding facilitates abrupt changes in agricultural strategy by farmers. When one of these sectors is in crisis, resources from the other sector can be mobilized to sustain or re-initiate it. Household sources of food and cash are supplemented in the process.