Empowering Farmers
to Save Seed and Diversity

Since 1997, researchers from CIMMYT and Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) have worked with farmers in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico, to conserve the diverse maize landraces in the area. Their efforts are funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

“The challenge was taking what we learned in the diagnostic phase of our research—which characteristics farmers valued in their maize, the range of varieties they wanted, and the specific traits that were important to them—and moving to the intervention phase,” says Mauricio Bellon, CIMMYT human ecologist and Oaxaca Project leader.

Researchers thought carefully about the best ways to wed scientific concepts for genetic resource conservation to practices that would make a difference in farmers’ lives. “We concluded that training in maize storage and seed selection could play an important role in conserving genetic diversity in these communities,” says Bellon, “and we developed a training program based on farmers’ knowledge of these practices".

Bellon explains that better storage practices, for example, keep seed in good condition and less vulnerable to loss. “Seed loss was a problem in the communities where we worked, especially for rare types of maize like the black-and red-grained landraces .” He adds that improved storage practices also make the family grain supply—and family income—more secure.

Saving Seed and Grain

Training in storage constituted simple,  useful tips, ranging from cleaning the storage area to the proper use of storage pesticides and a silo. “We tried to find out how farmers coped with the storage problem and learned about the silos that people were using in Amatengo, another area of Mexico,” says Irma Rosas , research assistant. “The silo was a good way to store grain and seed. During the farmer training, we explained its advantages. We also learned that many farmers were using fostoxin, a storage pesticide, for their grain but were not using it properly. They either used too much or stored it in poorly sealed containers.”

Manuel Martínez García, from San Lorenzo Albarradas in Oaxaca, was one of the first farmers to benefit from the training. He is proud to show the clean, cool area in his compound where he keeps his maize seed. “Now I keep my seed in good condition for a very long time,” he says. “Before we were losing so much each harvest because of rodents, fungus, and disease.” Martínez stores his maize grain in his silo and treats his maize seed with fostoxin, using what he learned from the training. He will plant the seed next year.

The training also gave farmers like Ricarda Meza greater flexibility to keep seed for several seasons. After an accident incapacitated Meza’s husband, the couple could not work the farm. Because of the information she obtained in the training course, Meza could support herself and her husband on maize that she kept in storage for two years. “Two years ago, I had a good crop, and that’s what we eat now. Before then, I had a lot of infestation, and it was so fast and so bad! I used to keep my maize in bags and didn’t use anything [to protect it ].Then I went for the training. I came home and told my husband, and we started applying the treatment to our maize.” Meza adds that previously they often had to sell their maize before it got infested, at a low price. “But now I can keep my maize, I don’t have to sell it quickly. When I need money, I take maize to the city. As soon as the merchants there see how nice my maize is, they all want to buy it!” Now that her husband is well, Ricarda says they will be planting the seed they have been keeping for two seasons.

Selecting Seed to Maintain Diversity

Training was also provided on seed selection in the home and in the field. Farmers learned about the characteristics to look for in plants in the field and about the need for a broader base for selecting seed at home. “Farmers selected seed from a very small number of ears, which may accumulate mutations that weaken the plant,” Bellon explains. “By teaching farmers to have a broader base in seed selection, we help them maintain diversity, reduce the problem of mutations, and perhaps improve yield stability.”

Pedro López Imazo from Santa Ana Zegache attended the seed selection training at home and in the field. In the varieties he grows, López wanted uniformity in the size of the maize grain and wanted the maize stalks to be the same color. At home, he carefully selected grains with the traits he valued, and in the field he spray-painted the husks of plants that he wanted. ”Now I have almost no plants with colored stalks,” he says. Encouraged by his success with the maize stalks, López is now experimenting with his pinto (multicolored) maize variety.

Training Works for Farmers and Posterity

A total of 742 farmers in the Oaxaca area, 504 men and 238 women, have benefited from the training since it began in 1999.The training, Bellon says, was the result of a long process that brought together farmers, geneticists, breeders,  and social scientists. “The project has a very interdisciplinary approach. We used what we learned from the system and adapted it to the intervention,” he said. “We focused not only on the hardware—in other words,  the tools farmers used—but also on the software, farmers’ knowledge. Basically, we identified what was available, why it was not working, and then we provided ways to make it work.”

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For more information: Mauricio Bellon (m.bellon@cgiar.org)

Published on October 2001.

August, 2004

Annual Report 00-2001 |  Maize Diversity in Oaxaca, Mexico: Simple Questions but No Easy Answers