Resource-poor Mexican Farmers Grow More “Improved” Maize than You Think

A study published by CIMMYT shows how farmers in poor areas of southeastern Mexico mold improved varieties and landraces to suit local conditions and preferences, mixing desired traits of both into “creolized” maize strains that provide food, income, and peace of mind.

Which is the best crop option for resource-poor maize farmers in developing countries: scientifically improved varieties or “landraces,” the locally-adapted maize types developed over centuries of selection by rural inhabitants? Long and sometimes hotly debated in development circles, the issue raises questions concerning the traits that farmers actually value and the worth of modern breeding initiatives in countries like Mexico, where 90% of farmers eschew “seed from a bag,” preferring to sow that which they save from their own harvests.

As the polemics fly, it appears that Mexican farmers in the grim business of daily survival have been blurring the lines between the two extremes, crossing their landraces with improved maize types in a process called “creolization.” A recent CIMMYT publication shows that improved maize, via creolized varieties, is indeed enhancing the well-being of poor Mexican farmers, offering attractive combinations of traits they seek.

“In creolization, farmers take a product of the formal research system and deliberately modify it to suit their needs,” says Mauricio Bellon, former CIMMYT human ecologist now working at the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and first author of the study. “They do this by exposing improved varieties to their conditions and management, continually selecting seed of these varieties for replanting and, in some cases, fostering their hybridization with landraces, either by design or by accident.” This approach provides farmers with some of the advantages of improved maize—say, a shorter, sturdier stature—while preserving cherished grain quality traits and local adaptation.

The researchers employed participatory methods, ethnographic case studies, household surveys, collections of maize samples, and agronomic evaluation of the samples in the study. They focused on two locations in Mexico: the coast of Oaxaca state and the “La Frailesca” region in Chiapas state. The study areas are contrasting—one subsistence-oriented and the other commercial—but extreme poverty pervades both. Maize continues to play a key role in the livelihoods of the poor in both areas, and farmers there grow improved varieties and hybrids, creolized varieties, and landraces, depending on factors such as whether they are commercial or subsistence farmers, or the relationship between soil type and variety.

“As Mauricio’s and many other studies have shown, small-scale farmers who plant maize for subsistence and, particularly, those who also sell some of their production, value multiple traits in their crop,” says Jonathan Hellin, CIMMYT poverty specialist who has also been working in the regions. “Usually no single variety can provide all the valued traits; hence, farmers continually face trade-offs in their variety choices. Creolized varieties can provide traits not supplied by landraces, and they entail fewer trade-offs than improved varieties, in terms of grain quality or adaptation to local conditions.”

According to Hellin, a key element is that of trust in the seed, particularly for more vulnerable, risk-averse farmers. “Farmers need to see seed perform before trying it, even if it means using second-generation seed,” he says. “The fact that creolized varieties are trusted contributes to farmers’ well-being in a subjective but real way, giving them a sense of security. This is important for the poor and vulnerable.”

Despite the widespread adoption of improved germplasm, landraces occupy more than one-fifth of the area planted to maize in coastal Oaxaca and La Frailesca and are grown by more than one-fourth of farmers, particularly poor ones.

For more information contact Jonathan Hellin (j.hellin@cgiar.org)