In early 2001, a network of researchers gathered information from maize farmers in upland areas in China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The information will help bring the problems and constraints of these farmers to the attention of policy makers and scientists, with the goal of developing a maize intensification program that considers rural people’s needs and is environmentally friendly.

The participatory rural surveys represent the initial phase of a three-year project supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The project promotes equitable distribution of income and improved food security for poor and marginalized maize farmers in Asia. Asia alone will account for 60% of the global increase in maize demand in the next two decades. Maize demand in the region is expected to grow from 138 million tons (in 1993) to 243 million tons in 2020.The increased demand will have serious implications for poor and marginalized farmers in upland areas, where most maize production in Asia has been concentrated. 

Thailand: Concerns of the Poor Brought to Light

The village of Baphai Deng, in the province of Nakorn Ratchaseesima, Thailand, is one of 24 communities visited by Benchaphun Ekasingh, project collaborator from Chiang Mai University, and her team of researchers. Dividing the farmers into two separate groups, Ekasingh and her team elicited information about the crops they grew, land preparation practices, crop varieties used, and the constraints they faced. The poorest of the 12 districts in the area, almost a two-hour drive over a hilly and bumpy dirt road from the nearest commercial center—good weather permitting—Baphai Deng is typical of villages surveyed across the seven countries.

“Most of these are marginalized communities where maize is the main income earner. In many places we visited there were not many alternatives. Even if these farmers are growing other crops, they don’t bring in much income. Some farmers have attempted to move from maize but were not successful. Low income from maize and rising costs of production are the main problems,” Ekasingh says.

The information gathered, she adds, will bring to light issues that are not so evident to researchers and policy makers.

“Researchers and policy makers don’t have enough information about problems affecting maize production, especially small-scale farmers, and this survey will reveal those problems. It will also bring out other information that is not so visible to policy makers or researchers, like the environmental risks that are associated with intensifying maize cropping, and equity issues,” she explains.

Nepal: Pressure on Isolated Farm Communities

Throughout much of Asia, rapid economic growth and accelerating urbanization is changing food consumption patterns from traditional rice diets to greater consumption of meat, which in turn leads to increased demand for maize for animal feed. This pattern is evident in Nepal, where maize is the primary food crop for most of the hill areas. 


According to Dularchan Sahu Pathik, Director for Crops and Horticulture at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), demand for maize, both for food and fodder, is increasing and is estimated to grow from 6% to 8% over the next 20 years. “Presently we are importing. This is a very important crop and we are looking into ways to increase production.” He adds that the biggest constraints for maize farmers are the lack of improved seed and losses after harvest, when insects and disease can eat away the stored maize grain. “In some districts, storage losses were reported to be as high as 50%.”

Using seven teams of researchers, CIMMYT post-doctoral fellow Kamal Raj Paudyal surveyed farmers in 17 hill districts in Nepal. Some of the areas they visited were remote, and researchers were faced with a number of challenges.

“We wanted to finish the survey immediately after the summer harvest, but despite the late monsoon, the rains continued and most of the roads were closed,” said Paudyal. “Some hill areas were very difficult. One of our teams spent about eight or nine days walking to the site and two days interviewing. In some areas, people were reluctant to respond. Some were afraid. They hardly see outsiders and are reluctant to say exactly how things are.”

On one of the visits, farmers from Bhandari Village in Dolakha, who transplant millet into standing maize or grow it after the maize harvest, talked about the lack of irrigation technology. “If we have pre-monsoon rain, it helps with the maize germination. But when we have to wait for the monsoon, the situation gets difficult for us,” said a farmer in the village. “We can’t harvest on time, we can’t go for millet, and that means only one crop. If we have irrigation, we can harvest the maize on time and go for millet. We can plant millet in standing maize, but it means more labor and the production is not so good. If we plant after maize, the production is better.”

Younger members of the community have other concerns. For 20-year-old Madhuram Karki, the problem was poor access to information and new technology. “There are no sources of information. Most often we learn by tradition or see how others do things when we travel to different places. If we see people cultivating in a different way and if the crops are good, we ask them to tell us how they do it.”

While there are extension workers and services in Nepal, Paudyal explains that the areas they have to cover are too large and the hills prohibit quick access.

The Philippines: Farm Assistance Goes Only So Far

To characterize maize production systems in Asia’s upland areas, researchers are identifying and mapping key maize-growing areas as well as gathering preliminary data on farmers. In the Philippines, this second activity brought CIMMYT economist Roberta Gerpacio 

“Labor is getting to be a problem with younger people going to live in cities.”

to northern Luzon, where she met with local researchers, agronomists, extension workers, and farmers. Earlier, she had completed collecting data from nine areas in Mindanao, the major maize-growing area in the Philippines. In northern Luzon, Gerpacio learned not only about the farmers, but also about the assistance that was being provided to them.

“In Cagayan, the agricultural district office helps farmers with new technologies like hybrid seed or organic fertilizer, under a government program. They also try to assist with production intensification by providing mechanical dryers and tractors to farmers’ groups or collectives in the community,” she says. Despite this assistance, problems remain.

For some of the farmers in the area, like Teodora Kuntapay from Isabela, the high price of inputs and shortage of labor are constraints. Kuntapay works five hectares with her husband and hired labor. “What I get from my farm is not enough. I have to support myself with other activities like raising poultry and pigs. My children are grown and have their own families, and they give a little to help. But the cost of inputs, especially labor, is high, and the price of maize is low, especially after harvest, ” she says.

Limited credit is another problem. “Many of these farmers need credit support from the government, but now the government does not buy back the maize and farmers are forced to sell maize at lower prices,” she says. 

Some farmers are assisted by farmer cooperatives like the Villaluna Multipurpose Cooperative, which recently acquired two tractors. “Labor is getting to be a problem with younger people going to live in cities, and we are looking into mechanized farming to cope with the problem,” one of the officers explains. “We got a loan from a bank which we have to pay in seven to ten years, and with that money we bought a mechanical planter, harvester, dryer, silo, and other small farm equipment.”

From Personal Stories to Practical Policies

These and many other personal stories, heard in rural areas in all of the countries involved in the project, are yielding data and information that will be brought to the scientific community through research and development planning meetings and to policy makers through policy dialogues. “The IFAD Project hopes to give these marginalized farmers the chance to be heard. It is crucial that maize producers be given more attention and support,” Gerpacio says.

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For more information: Roberta Gerpacio (r.gerpacio-irri@cgiar.org)

 
Published on October 2001

August, 2004

Annual Report 00-2001