Maize is more than a crop in Mexico. In many cases, it connects families with their past. Landraces are maize varieties that have been cultivated and subjected to selection by farmers for generations, retaining a distinct identity and lacking formal crop improvement. They provide the basis of Mexico’s maize diversity.
Back in 1966-67, researcher Ángel Kato from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) collected 93 maize landraces samples from 66 families in Mexico’s state of Morelos. These seeds were safeguarded in CIMMYT’s Germplasm Bank, which today stores 28,000 samples of maize and its wild relatives from 88 countries.
50 years later, doctoral candidate Denisse McLean-Rodriguez, from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy, and researchers from CIMMYT started a new study to trace the conservation and abandonment of maize landraces over the years.
The study shows that landrace abandonment is common when farming passes from one generation to the next. Older farmers were attached to their landraces and continued cultivating them, even in the face of pressing reasons to change or replace them. When the younger generations take over farm management, these landraces are often abandoned. Nonetheless, young farmers still value the cultural importance of landraces.
Maize landraces can be conserved “in situ” in farmers’ fields and “ex situ” in a protected space such as a germplasm bank or community seed bank. The loss of landraces in farmers’ fields over 50 years emphasizes the importance of ex situ conservation. Traits found in landraces can be incorporated into new varieties to address some of the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges like changing climates, emerging pests and disease, and malnutrition.
This research was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Wageningen University and the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
Mexican and international researchers have joined with farmers and specialists from Jala, a scenic valley near the Pacific Coast of Mexico’s state of Nayarit, in a critical strategy to save and study an endangered, legendary maize race whose ears once grew longer than a man’s forearm.
Specialists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are analyzing the race’s genetic diversity, in hopes of preserving its qualities and, in concert with Jala farmers, safeguarding its future and merits.
Efforts include a new maize festival that reprises a yearly contest begun in 1981 to honor the community’s largest maize ear, but the outsize Jala maize race faces myriad hurdles to survive, according to Carolina Camacho, CIMMYT socioeconomics researcher and festival collaborator.
“The Jala maize landrace is unsuited to mechanization due to its size and agronomic requirements,” said Camacho. “It must be sown by hand and, because the plant can grow to several meters or taller, the ears must be harvested on horseback.”
Jala maize is also losing out to more competitive and profitable improved varieties, Camacho added. It is prized locally for its floury texture, but many farmers favor varieties more suited to milling and which yield more husks — in high demand as tamale wraps — as well as fodder and feed. The floury texture also means the grain is less dense and so fetches a lower price on external markets, where grain is sold by weight.
Youth panel discussion at the Feria de la Mazorca del Maize Nativo with Carolina Camacho, CIMMYT (third from right). (Photo: Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
A fair fight for preservation
The most recent “Feria de la Mazorca del Maíz Nativo,” or Landrace Maize Ear Festival, was held in December 2018. Under the boughs of a giant guanacaste tree in the town square of Coapan, Jala Valley, children, elders, cooks and dancers celebrated maize and its associated traditions. The festival culminated in the contest for the largest maize ear, with the winning farmer’s submission measuring nearly 38 centimeters in length.
The competition typically takes place in August as part of Jala’s two-week “Feria del Elote,” or green ear festival, first established to foster the appreciation and preservation of the native maize.
CIMMYT scientists helped the community set up a local genebank to store Jala landrace seed, according to Denise Costich, head of the CIMMYT maize germplasm bank and festival collaborator.
“This enhances the community’s role as custodians of landrace diversity and their access to the seed,” said Costich, adding that Jala seed from as far back as the early 1980s forms part of CIMMYT’s maize collections, which comprise 28,000 unique samples.
Under CIMMYT’s Seeds of Discovery project, scientists are analyzing the remaining genetic potential in the Jala maize population, particularly to understand the extent and effects of both inbreeding and outcrossing.
On the one hand, Costich said, Jala’s unique genetic pedigree appears to be diluted from mixing with other varieties in the valley whose pollen lands on Jala silks. At the same time, she worries about possible inbreeding in some small and isolated valley pockets where Jala is grown.
Finally, the yearly contest, for which maize ears are harvested in the green stage before maturity, precludes use of the grain as seed and so may also remove inheritable potential for large ears from the local maize gene pool.
Farewell to small-scale farmers?
Setting up the contest entries in Coapan: (l-r) Cristian Zavala of the CIMMYT maize genebank recording data; Rafael Mier from Fundacion Tortillas de Maiz Mexicana; Victor Vidal, INIFAP collaborator and judge of the contest; and Alfredo Segundo of the CIMMYT maize genebank. (Photo: Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
Whatever the causes, Jala maize isn’t what it used to be. In 1924, a visiting scientist observed maize plants over 6 meters in height and with ears more than 60 centimeters long — far longer than today’s samples.
One grave challenge to the landrace’s continued existence is the steady disappearance of older farmers who grow it. As throughout rural Mexico, many youths are leaving farm communities like Jala in search of better opportunities and livelihoods in cities.
Camacho believes the festival and contest encourage farmers to continue growing Jala maize but cannot alone ensure the landrace’s preservation.
“The solutions need to encompass all aspects of Jala maize and be supported by the entire community, particularly young people,” said Camacho.
The festival in Coapan included a panel discussion with local youths, among them graduate students from the Autonomous University of Nayarit.
“The panelists highlighted the lack of opportunities in rural areas and the need for an economically secure future; things that Jala maize doesn’t offer,” Camacho said.
The festival is a collaboration among Costich, Camacho, Victor Vidal of INIFAP-Nayarit, and local partners including Gilberto González, Ricardo Cambero, Alondra Maldonado, Ismael Elías, Renato Olmedo (CIMMYT), and Miguel González Lomelí.
A researcher uses a vertical probe to measure moisture at different soil depths. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Since 1900, more than two billion people have been affected by drought worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Drought affects crops by limiting the amount of water available for optimal growth and development, thereby lowering productivity. It is one of the major abiotic stresses responsible for variability in crop yield, driving significant economic, environmental and social impacts.
A new technical manual, “Management of drought stress in field phenotyping,” provides a quantitative approach to drought stress phenotyping in crops. Phenotyping is a procedure vital to the success of crop breeding programs that involves physical assessment of plants for desired traits.
The manual provides guidance for crop breeders, crop physiologists, agronomists, students and field technicians who are working on improving crop tolerance to drought stress. It will help ensure drought screening trials yield accurate and precise data for use by breeding programs.
A sprinkler system irrigates a drought phenotyping trial field in Hyderabad, India. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Based on decades of CIMMYT’s research and experience, the manual covers aspects related to field site selection, effects of weather, crop management, maintaining uniform stress in trials, and duration of stress. It focuses on an approach that standardizes the required intensity, timing and uniformity of imposed drought stress during field trials.
Such a rigorous and accurate approach to drought screening allows for precision phenotyping. Careful management of imposed drought stress also allows the full variability in a population’s genotype to be expressed and identified during phenotyping, which means the full potential of the drought tolerance trait can be harnessed.
Variability among maize genotypes for agronomic and yield traits under managed drought stress. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“Crop breeding programs using conventional or molecular breeding approaches to develop crops with drought tolerance rely heavily on high-quality phenotypic data generated from drought screening trials,” said author and CIMMYT scientist P.H. Zaidi. “By following the guidance in this manual, users can maximize their quality standards.”
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been a pioneer in developing and deploying protocols for drought stress phenotyping, selection strategy and breeding for drought tolerance. CIMMYT’s research on drought stress in maize began in the 1970s and has since remained a top priority for the organization. Drought-tolerant maize is now one of CIMMYT’s flagship products and is a key component of CIMMYT’s portfolio of products aimed to cope with the effects of climate change in the tropics.
The information presented in the manual is based on the work on quantitative management of drought stress phenotyping under field conditions that received strong and consistent support from several donor agencies, especially Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany’s GIZ and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE). The manual itself was funded by the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding (EiB) platform.
Sometimes innovations fail to make an impact. Take 3D televisions, for example; launched at a large scale more than a decade ago, they did not achieve the expected commercial success. On paper, the technology was an affordable and thrilling breakthrough in home entertainment, but in practice many viewers failed to embrace it due to poor implementation. Today, it has largely fallen by the wayside.
Farming innovations can suffer similar fates if product designers do not consider the overall socioeconomic picture during development, warns Munyaradzi Mutenje, an agricultural economist with the Socioeconomics program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
“When the direct seed drill was first launched in Zimbabwe, farmers did not take to it,” Mutenje explains. “Here was a technology that could reduce the drudgery of hand sowing — vastly reducing labor costs and saving time — but no one wanted it. The scientists asked ‘why is no-one adopting this seed drill we designed? It solves so many production challenges… Why don’t people want it?’”
It transpired that women, who constitute a significant portion of the farming community in Zimbabwe, simply found the direct seed drill too heavy and awkward for practical use. They chose to stick with traditional farming methods and were skeptical of the new technology. In short, the product was not designed with the end user in mind.
Design that meets farmers’ needs
Mutenje stands next to a demonstration plot of maize during a field day organized by CIMMYT and Agriseeds. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Mutenje works in close association with CIMMYT’s sustainable intensification team in Zimbabwe, adding value by opening a dialogue with many different types of farmers. “From the basket of sustainable intensification technologies available, which one is appropriate for each type of farmer?” she asks herself when designing new interventions.
Technologies can seem good to scientists, but they might not be suitable for farmers, who operate within a system of which agriculture is only one component.
“You have to look at the situation from the farmers’ perspective,” Mutenje explains. “In order to assess the economic viability of innovations and to understand how and where to target them, we have to look at factors like social acceptance and cultural barriers that might constrain adoption within farming communities.”
Once technologies are rolled out to farmers, it is vital to seek feedback about the demand for new, and reviews of existing, technologies. This allows scientists to tailor their innovations to the needs and objectives of farmers.
“When we design technologies that meet farmers’ needs because we have interacted with them and understood the whole system; that is our greatest impact.”
All roads lead to CIMMYT
Growing up on a farm in rural Zimbabwe instilled in Mutenje a deep respect for women’s role in agriculture in southern Africa. With her father engaged in off-farm work, her mother tended the farm. She grew curious about household decision-making and was inspired to pursue a career in agricultural science, first studying at the University of Zimbabwe before obtaining her doctoral degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa with a thesis on the effects of AIDS on rural livelihoods.
“I was inspired by the multidisciplinary nature of science and how its application to farming allows scientists to directly help feed people and really transform people’s lives.”
During her undergraduate studies, Mutenje learned from CIMMYT scientists who offered her class practical agronomic examples and taught the students how to apply data analysis to solve complex problems. Fascinated by the power of data to elucidate patterns that can help scientists, she resolved, “One day I will work for CIMMYT to address food and nutritional security issues in southern Africa!”
In 2012, her aspirations became reality as she joined CIMMYT in Zimbabwe as a postdoctoral fellow. Today, she is a CIMMYT scientist.
Work that sparks joy
Working with the CIMMYT sustainable intensification program on projects spanning five countries in southern Africa, Mutenje finds joy in working alongside partners as part of a large team. “You become one big family,” she reflects.
She feels pride in working with smallholder farmers and transforming their livelihoods through science. By boosting the knowledge and potential of women in particular, she believes that sustainable, positive change is possible.
“Women are the custodians of food and nutritional security, so we need to understand their challenges and opportunities. If you help women and offer them training, their impact will go far since they will pass their knowledge on to their children.”
Mutenje carries out a qualitative vulnerability assessment in Bvukuru community, Masvingo province, Zimbabwe, to feed into a study for a project funded by the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) and Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ). (Photo: CIMMYT)
Policy change to help farmers
Although working directly with farmers is what Mutenje enjoys the most, she concedes that prompting widespread change often calls for deeper scrutiny of the value chain, to identify bottlenecks that constrain adoption. Gathering empirical data and presenting evidence of the complete story to policymakers has enabled Mutenje to influence policy change on a national scale.
“In Mozambique, we discovered fertilizer costs were too high for farmers, so they were missing out on a technology that would enable increased yields.”
Mutenje’s work analyzed the whole system and found the import tax on fertilizer component materials was too high and that manufacturers were simply handing that cost down to the farmers. By highlighting this issue to government representatives, she triggered a change in import tax policy. This initiative resulted in fertilizer prices that are affordable to farmers, facilitating improved yields and livelihoods.
“An evidence-based approach, based on quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources allows scientists to present the complete story,” she explains. “Armed with this, we can convince policymakers to make changes to help farmers and improve food security.”
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) operates five agricultural experiment stations in Mexico. Strategically located across the country to take advantage of different growing conditions — spanning arid northern plains to sub-tropical and temperate climatic zones — the stations offer unique and well-managed testing conditions for a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses.
Heat and drought tolerance in wheat is the focus of study at Ciudad Obregón, while the humid, cool conditions at Toluca are ideal for studying wheat resistance to foliar diseases. The tropical and sub-tropical settings of Agua Fría and Tlaltizapán respectively are suited to maize field trials, while at El Batán researchers carry out a wide variety of maize and wheat trials.
A new video highlights the important and valuable contribution of the five experimental stations in Mexico to CIMMYT’s goal of developing maize and wheat that can cope with demanding environments around the world, helping smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America adapt to challenges like climate change, emerging pests and disease, and malnutrition.
Featuring aerial cinematography and interviews with each station’s manager, the video takes viewers on a journey to each experimental station to highlight the research and management practices specific to each location.
In addition to their role in breeding maize and wheat varieties, CIMMYT’s experimental stations host educational events throughout the year that train the next generation of farmers, policymakers and crop scientists. They also provide the canvas on which CIMMYT scientists develop and test farming practices and technologies to help farmers grow more with less.
Some of the stations also hold historical significance. Ciudad Obregón and Toluca are two of the sites where Norman Borlaug set up his shuttle breeding program that provided the foundations of the Green Revolution. It was also in Toluca, while at a trial plot alongside six young scientists from four developing nations, where Borlaug first received news of his 1970 Nobel Peace Prize award.
Francelino Rodrigues prepares an UAV for radiometric calibration for multispectral flight over a maize tar spot complex screening trial at CIMMYT’s Agua Fría experimental station, Mexico. (Photo: Alexander Loladze/CIMMYT)
A new study from researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) shows that remote sensing can speed up and improve the effectiveness of disease assessment in experimental maize plots, a process known as phenotyping.
The study constitutes the first time that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, commonly known as drones) with cameras that capture non-visible electromagnetic radiation were used to assess tar spot complex on maize.
The interdisciplinary team found among other things that potential yield losses under heavy tar spot complex infections could reach 58% — more than 10% greater than reported in previous studies.
Caused by the interaction of two fungal pathogens that thrive in warm, humid conditions, tar spot complex is diagnosed by the telltale black spots that cover infected plants. (Photo: Alexander Loladze/CIMMYT)
“Plant disease resistance assessment in the field is becoming difficult because breeders’ trials are larger, are conducted at multiple locations, and there is a lack of personnel trained to evaluate diseases,” said Francelino Rodrigues, CIMMYT precision agriculture specialist and co-lead author of the study. “In addition, disease scoring based on visual assessments can vary from person to person.”
A major foliar disease that affects maize throughout Latin America, tar spot complex results from the interaction of two species of fungus that thrive in warm, humid conditions. The disease causes telltale black spots on infected plants, killing leaves, weakening the plant, and impairing ear development.
Phenotyping has traditionally involved breeders walking through crop plots and visually assessing each plant, a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. As remote sensing technologies become more accessible and affordable, scientists are applying them more often to assess experimental plants for desired agronomic or physical traits, according to Rodrigues, who said they can facilitate accurate, high-throughput phenotyping for resistance to foliar diseases in maize and help reduce the cost and time of developing improved maize germplasm.
“To phenotype maize for resistance to foliar diseases, highly trained personnel must spend hours in the field to complete visual crop evaluations, which requires substantial time and resources and may result in biased or inaccurate results between surveyors,” said Rodrigues. “The use of UAVs to gather multispectral and thermal images allows researchers to cut down the time and expenses of evaluations, and perhaps in the future it could also improve accuracy.”
Color-infrared image of maize hybrids in the experimental trials under fungicide treatment (A1) and non-fungicide treatment (A2) of tar spot complex of maize. Image data were extracted from two polygons from the two central rows in each plot (B).
Technology sheds new light on phenotyping
Receptors in the human eye detect a limited range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum — the area we call visible light — consisting of three bands that our eyes perceive as red, green and blue. The colors we see are the combination of the three bands of visible light that an object reflects.
Remote sensing takes advantage of how the surface of a leaf differentially absorbs, transmits and reflects light or other electromagnetic radiation, depending on its composition and condition. The reflectance of diseased plant tissue is different from that of healthy ones, provided the plants are not stressed by other factors, such as heat, drought or nutrient deficiencies.
In this study, researchers planted 25 tropical and subtropical maize hybrids of known agronomic performance and resistance to tar spot complex at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Agua Fría, central Mexico. They then carried out disease assessments by eye and gathered multispectral and thermal imagery of the plots.
This allowed them to compare remote sensing with traditional phenotyping methods. Calculations revealed a strong relationship between grain yield, canopy temperature, vegetation indices and the visual assessment.
Future applications
“The results of the study suggest that remote sensing could be used as an alternative method for assessment of disease resistance in large-scale maize trials,” said Rodrigues. “It could also be used to calculate potential losses due to tar spot complex.”
Accelerated breeding for agriculturally relevant crop traits is fundamental to the development of improved varieties that can face mounting global agricultural threats. It is likely that remote sensing technologies will have a critical role to play in overcoming these challenges.
“An important future area of research encompasses pre-symptomatic detection of diseases in maize,” explained Rodrigues. “If successful, such early detection would allow appropriate disease management interventions before the development of severe epidemics. Nevertheless, we still have a lot of work to do to fully integrate remote sensing into the breeding process and to transfer the technology into farmers’ fields.”
Funding for this research was provided by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE).
Maize is more than a crop in Mexico. While it provides food, feed and raw materials, it is also a bloodline running through the generations, connecting Mexico’s people with their past.
The fascinating diversity of maize in Mexico is rooted in its cultural and biological legacy as the center of origin of maize. Landraces, which are maize varieties that have been cultivated and subjected to selection by farmers for generations, retaining a distinct identity and lacking formal crop improvement, provide the basis of this diversity.
As with any cultural legacy, the cultivation of maize landraces can be lost with the passage of time as farmers adapt to changing markets and generational shifts take place.
Doctoral candidate Denisse McLean-Rodríguez, from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy, and researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have undertaken a new study that traces the conservation and abandonment of maize landraces over the last 50 years in Morelos, Mexico’s second smallest state.
The study is based on a collection of 93 maize landrace samples, collected by Ángel Kato as a research assistant back in 1966-67 and stored in CIMMYT’s Maize Germplasm Bank. Researchers traced the 66 families in Morelos who donated the samples and explored the reasons why they abandoned or conserved their landraces.
Doctoral candidate Denisse McLean-Rodríguez (left) interviews maize farmer Roque Juarez Ramirez at his family home in Morelos to explore his opinions on landrace conservation. (Photo: E. Orchardson/CIMMYT)
Tracing landrace abandonment
In six cases, researchers were able to interview the original farmers who donated the samples to CIMMYT. In other cases, they interviewed their family members, most frequently the sons or daughters, or alternatively their grandchildren, siblings, nephews or widows.
The study reveals that maize landrace cultivation has diminished significantly within the families. Only 13 of the 66 families are still cultivating the same maize seed lots as in 1966-67 and there was consensus that the current social, economic and physical environments are unfavorable for landrace cultivation.
Among the reasons for abandonment are changes in maize cultivation technologies, shifting markets for maize and other crops, policy changes, shifting cultural preferences, urbanization and climate change.
“By finding out about landrace continuity in farmers’ fields and the factors driving change, we were able to better understand the context in which these landraces are currently cultivated,” said McLean-Rodríguez. “Our study also allowed us to evaluate the importance of ex situ conservation in facilities like CIMMYT’s Germplasm Bank.”
Juarez and Oliveros’s grandson shows the family’s heirloom maize: maíz colorado (left) and Ancho maize. (Photo: E. Orchardson/CIMMYT)
Maize biodiversity conservation
Maize landraces can be conserved “in situ” in farmers’ fields and “ex situ” in a protected space such as a germplasm bank or community seed bank.
“These conservation strategies are complementary,” explained McLean-Rodríguez. “Ex situ conservation helps to secure landraces in case of unpredictable conditions that threaten their conservation in the field, while in situ cultivation allows the processes that generated maize’s diversity to continue, allowing the emergence of mutations and the evolution of new potentially beneficial traits.”
The loss of landraces in farmers’ fields over 50 years emphasizes the importance of ex situ conservation. CIMMYT’s Maize Germplasm Bank holds 28,000 samples of maize and its wild relatives from 88 countries, spanning collections dating back to 1943. Safeguarded seed stored in the Germplasm Bank is protected from crises or natural disasters, and is available for breeding and research. Traits found in landraces can be incorporated into new varieties to address some of the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges like changing climates, emerging pests and disease, and malnutrition.
McLean-Rodríguez recalls an aspect of the study that she found particularly rewarding: “Many of the families who had lost their landrace for one reason or another were interested in receiving back samples of their maize from the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank. Some were interested due to personal value, while others were more interested in the productive value. They were very happy to retrieve their maize from the Germplasm Bank, and it would be very interesting to learn whether the repatriated seed is cultivated in the future.”
Ventura Oliveros Garcia holds a photograph of her father, Santos Oliveros, who was one of the maize farmers who donated seed to CIMMYT’s germplasm bank in 1966-67. (Photo: E. Orchardson/CIMMYT)
A family tradition
One of the families to take part in the study was farmer Roque Juarez Ramirez and his wife, Ventura Oliveros Garcia, whose father was one of the donor farmers from Morelos. “I was so happy to hear the name of my father, [Santos Oliveros],” recalls Oliveros, remembering the moment McLean-Rodríguez contacted her. “He had always been a maize farmer, as in his day they didn’t cultivate anything else. He planted on his communal village land [ejido] and he was always able to harvest a lot of maize, many ears. He planted an heirloom variety of maize that we called arribeño, or marceño, because it was always planted in March.”
Juarez senses his responsibility as a maize farmer: “I feel that the importance [of maize farming] is not small, but big. We are not talking about keeping 10 or 20 people alive; we have to feed a whole country of people who eat and drink, apart from providing for our families. We, the farmers, generate the food.”
Filling vessels of champurrado, a Mexican maize-based sweet drink, and presenting samples of the family’s staple maize — maíz colorado and the Ancho landrace — Oliveros describes what maize means to her: “Maize is very important to my family and me because it is our main source of food, for both humans and animals. We use our maize variety to make pozole, tortillas, tamales, atole, quesadillas, picadas and many other foods.”
The Juarez-Oliveros family substituted the Ancho seed lot from Olivero’s father with another seed lot from the Ancho landrace obtained from her husband’s family. The Ancho landrace is used to make pozole, and continues to be widely cultivated in some municipalities of Morelos, including Totolapan, where the family resides. However, researchers found other landraces present in the 1966-67 collection, such as Pepitilla, were harder to trace 50 years later.
Maíz colorado (left), or red maize, is an important part of the family’s diet. The family’s Ancho maize (right) has characteristically wide and flat kernels, and is a key ingredient of the pozole stew. (Photo: E. Orchardson/CIMMYT)
The study shows that landrace abandonment is common when farming passed from one generation to the next. Older farmers were attached to their landraces and continued cultivating them, even in the face of pressing reasons to change or replace them. When the younger generations take over farm management, these landraces are often abandoned.
Nonetheless, young farmers still value the cultural and culinary importance of landraces. “Maize has an important traditional and cultural significance, and is fundamental to our economy,” said Isaac Juarez Oliveros, son of Roque and Ventura. “I have been planting [maize landraces] since I was around 15 to 20 years old. I got my maize seed from my parents. I believe it is important for families to keep planting their maize, as it has become tradition passed down through many generations.”
The family’s son, Isaac Juarez Oliveros, stands outside the maize storage room where they store and dry their harvested maize for sale and consumption. (Photo: E. Orchardson/CIMMYT)
The legacy for future generations
Global food security depends on the maintenance of high genetic biodiversity in such key staple food crops as maize. Understanding the causes of landrace abandonment can help to develop effective landrace conservation strategies. The authors suggest that niches for landrace conservation and even expansion can be supported in the same manner that niches have been created for improved maize and other commercial crops. Meanwhile, management of genetic resources is vital, both in the field and in germplasm banks, especially in developing countries where broader diversity exists.
For Oliveros, it is a matter of family legacy: “It means a lot to me that [my family’s seed] was preserved because it has allowed my family’s maize and my father’s memory to stay alive.”
“Farmers who cultivate landraces are providing an invaluable global public service,” state the authors of the study. “It will be key to encourage maize landrace cultivation in younger farmers. Tapping into the conservation potential of the current generation of farmers is an opportunity we should not miss.”
A special acknowledgement to the families, focus group participants and municipal authorities from the state of Morelos who kindly devoted time to share their experiences with us, on the challenges and rewards of maize landrace conservation.
Tackling the challenges of climate change and increasing scarcity of resources like arable land and water requires that farming and food systems around the world undergo fundamental shifts in thinking and practices. A new book draws on experiences of men and women farmers across eastern and southern Africa who have been associated with the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project. The inspiring and moving accounts tell the story of how these farmers have bravely embraced change to improve their farming methods and consequently the lives and livelihoods of their families.
The maize-growing regions of southern and eastern Africa face many challenges, including lower than average yields, crop susceptibility to pests and diseases, and abiotic stresses such as droughts that can be frequent and severe. There is also widespread lack of access to high-yielding stress resilient improved seed and other farming innovations, presenting a need for scalable technologies, adapted to farmers’ growing conditions.
Maize is the most important staple crop in the region, feeding more than 200-300 million people across Africa and providing food and income security to millions of smallholder farmers. Prioritization of cost reducing, yield enhancing and resource conserving farming methods is vital to catalyze a shift towards sustainable and resilient maize agri-food systems. Conservation agriculture (CA) is one promising approach.
Launched in 2010, SIMLESA is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The project supports farmers and partner organizations to achieve increased food production while minimizing pressure on the environment by using smallholder farmers’ resources more efficiently through CA approaches. SIMLESA is implemented by national agricultural research systems, agribusinesses and farmers in partner countries including, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
The farmers’ words in this book drive home the core philosophy of SIMLESA: that critical paradigm shifts in smallholder farming are possible and can lead to positive and potentially lasting impacts.
The candid accounts of the benefits yielded from adopting new practices like CA are a testimony to this idea: “Now we have seen with our own eyes these new methods are beneficial, and we want to continue what we are doing….my field is a school where others can learn,” said Maria Gorete, a farmer in Mozambique.
Policy makers and scientists from eastern and southern Africa met in Uganda at a regional forum convened by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), on 3-4 May 2019. The forum discussed ways to scale up the learnings of SIMLESA and a joint communique recommending policy actions was signed by the Ministers of Agriculture of the Republic of Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the State of Eritrea, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Republic of Kenya, the Republic of Madagascar, the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of South Sudan, the Republic of the Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Uganda, the Republic of Malawi and the Republic of Mozambique of the high level Ministerial Panel on Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA).
Aflatoxins are harmful compounds that are produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus, which can be found in the soil, plants and grain of a variety of legumes and cereals including maize. Toxic to humans and animals, aflatoxins are associated with liver and other types of cancer, as well as with weakened immune systems that result in increased burden of disease, micronutrient deficiencies, and stunting or underweight development in children.
Efforts to breed maize varieties with resistance to aflatoxin contamination have proven difficult and elusive. Contamination of maize grain and products with aflatoxin is especially prevalent in low- and middle-income countries where monitoring and safety standards are inconsistently implemented.
Biofortification also serves to address “hidden hunger,” or micronutrient deficiency. Over two billion people are affected globally — they consume a sufficient amount of calories but lack essential micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Vitamin A deficiency specifically compromises the health of millions of maize consumers around the world, including large parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Provitamin A-enriched maize is developed by increasing the concentration of carotenoids — the precursors of vitamin A — and powerful antioxidants that play important roles in reducing the production of aflatoxin by the fungus Aspergillus flavus. The relative ease of breeding for increased concentrations of carotenoids as compared to breeding for aflatoxin resistance in maize make this finding especially significant as part of a solution to aflatoxin contamination problems.
Breeding of provitamin A-enriched maize varieties is ongoing at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), with the support of HarvestPlus. Several varieties trialed in sub-Saharan Africa have demonstrated their potential to benefit vitamin-deficient maize consumers.
The researchers highlight the potential in breeding maize with enhanced levels of carotenoids to yield the dual health benefits of reduced aflatoxin concentration in maize and reduced rates of vitamin A deficiency. This result is especially significant for countries where the health burdens of exposure to aflatoxin and prevalence of vitamin A deficiency converge with high rates of maize consumption.
Financial support for this study was partially provided by HarvestPlus, a global alliance of agriculture and nutrition research institutions working to increase the micronutrient density of staple food crops through biofortification. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of HarvestPlus. The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) also supported this research.
This research builds on the Ph.D. dissertation of Dr. Pattama Hannok at University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States (Hannok, 2015).
Women have the potential to be drivers of agricultural transformation in Africa, holding the key to improving their families’ livelihoods and food security. However, constraints such as lack of access to initial capital, machinery, reliable markets, and knowledge and training are difficult to overcome, leading to restricted participation by women and young people in agricultural systems in Africa.
A new video from the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project highlights the importance of gender equity and social inclusion to achieving project impacts and outcomes, helping to drive transformative change towards securing a food-secure future for Africa. Case studies and interviews with women and men farmers — including young people — detail how SIMLESA’s approach has re-shaped their maize-based farming lives.
The video is aligned with the theme for International Women’s Day 2019, “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change,” which places the spotlight on innovative ways in which we can advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.
“This video is intended to educate the agricultural community and wider public on the importance of applying sustainable intensification agricultural practices and technologies in order to bridge the gender gap in agricultural productivity and achieve agricultural transformation for smallholder farmers in Africa,” said Rahma Adam, Gender and Development Specialist with CIMMYT in Kenya. “We hope stakeholders will be able to see the benefits of these practices and technologies, and work towards finding ways to implement them into their agricultural practices or programs.”
SIMLESA lead farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize cobs from a stook on her farm in Tembwe, Salima district, Malawi. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Putting equal opportunities at the center
Following a participatory research for development approach, the SIMLESA team works alongside farmers and partner organizations to achieve increased food production while minimizing pressure on the environment by using smallholder farmers’ resources more efficiently and empowering women, men and young people to make decisions.
The SIMLESA project achieves impact by integrating gender sensitivity into all project activities and developing a deep understanding of social contexts and factors that constrain access to, and adoption of, improved technologies. Initiatives are able to reach all individuals in the project’s target communities, leaving no one out.
“The benefits of fostering equal opportunities for women, men and young people through SIMLESA’s work are enormous,” said Adam. Equal opportunities mean better access to information, markets, and improved varieties of seeds; participation in field trials, demonstrations and training; and the provision of leadership opportunities in local innovation platforms.
Central to the success of the SIMLESA project is the concept of Agricultural Innovation Platforms. “Being members of these platforms, farmers can access credits, which they can use to purchase farm inputs,” explained Adam. “They are able to take part in collective marketing and get a better price for their crops. The Agricultural Innovation Platforms also facilitate training on better agribusiness management practices and the sharing of ideas about other productive investment opportunities to better farmers’ lives. All these benefits were hard to come by when the women and youth farmers were farming on their own without being associated to the SIMLESA project or part of the platforms.”
The words of Rukaya Hasani Mtambo, a farmer from Tanzania, are a testimony to the power of this idea. “As a woman, I am leader of our group and head of my household. I always encourage my fellow women, convincing them we are capable. We should not underestimate what we can do.”
Group photo during the IMIC-Africa inception workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, in May 2018. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Maize is the most important staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa, providing food security and a source of income to more than 200 million households. Nonetheless, maize yields in this region rank among the lowest worldwide.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) launched the International Maize Improvement Consortium for Africa (IMIC-Africa) in May 2018, to better engage with a committed set of partners from the public and private sector, and to achieve enhanced maize yields in Africa.
Members of IMIC-Africa share a vision: meeting the challenges of maize production by scaling out and fully exploiting the potential of improved climate-resilient and stress-tolerant varieties in sub-Saharan Africa.
Cultivated on over 35 million hectares of typically rainfed land across sub-Saharan Africa, maize is subject to the vagaries of climate, suffering occasional to frequent drought stress. Other regional challenges include poor soil quality, characterized by nitrogen deficiency, and the ongoing threat of transboundary pathogens and pests, such as the voracious fall armyworm. In addition, farmers generally have inadequate access to improved seed that could help them achieve higher yields.
Although the challenges are complex, the effective use of improved, climate-resilient and multiple-stress-tolerant maize varieties has achieved tangible results in this region. Elite drought-tolerant (DT) maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT have demonstrated at least 25-30 percent grain yield advantage over non-DT maize varieties in sub-Saharan Africa under drought stress. CIMMYT has also derived elite heat-tolerant maize hybrids for sub-Saharan Africa, and during the recent outbreak of maize lethal necrosis (MLN), the rapid development and deployment of elite MLN-resistant hybrids was instrumental in the containment of this threat to eastern Africa.
Modelled on its successful counterpart initiatives in Asia (IMIC-Asia) and Latin America (IMIC-LatAm), there is hope that IMIC-Africa will follow a similar pattern of success.
The consortium is comprised of a diverse array of member institutions, including seed companies, national programs and foundations.
Its key objective is to enhance members’ capacity for germplasm development in their own breeding programs through provision of early generation or advanced maize lines. The subsequent multi-location testing of elite pre-commercial maize hybrids throughout sub-Saharan Africa by members will serve to identify products that can advance to commercialization and deployment.
“IMIC-Africa has a growing membership aimed at formalizing the sharing of maize lines under development with public and private maize breeding programs,” said CIMMYT scientist and Africa regional representative Stephen Mugo. “The consortium will also support a vibrant germplasm testing network, offer opportunities for training and cross learning among members, and grant access to other special services offered by CIMMYT including MLN testing, doubled haploid development and molecular quality assurance/quality control.”
The work of the consortium will ultimately benefit the farming community through the targeted development of maize varieties that express traits jointly identified and prioritized by consortium members and that are specifically adapted to the suite of agro-ecologies in sub-Saharan Africa. Traits of relevance include tolerance to abiotic stresses, disease and insect-pest resistance and higher yielding hybrids.
“IMIC-Africa will contribute to food security in Africa by broadening access to and use of stress-tolerant improved maize germplasm as well as strengthening maize breeding programs, thus improving farmers’ access to improved maize varieties,” Mugo explained.
Membership of IMIC-Africa is open to all organized and registered private commercial seed companies, corporations, and organized and registered public agencies or organizations involved in maize crop research and improvement, hybrid seed production or maize seed marketing.
For further information about membership and eligibility, please contact B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize: b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org.
Maize is currently grown on 35 million hectares of land in Africa and is easily the most important staple food crop in the continent, feeding more than 200-300 million people and providing income security to millions of smallholder farmers. Nonetheless, African maize growers face many challenges, including lower than average yields, crop susceptibility to pests and diseases, and abiotic stresses such as droughts. They generally lack access to high yielding improved seed and other farming innovations that could help them overcome those challenges.
SIMLESA is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). It is implemented by national agricultural research systems, agribusinesses and farmers in partner countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
A new video highlights the outcomes and achievements of the SIMLESA project and it features interviews with farmers and scientists.
Among the outstanding achievements of the SIMLESA project are the release of 40 new maize varieties, the selection of more than 50 legume varieties for official release in partner countries, yield increases of 10 to 30 percent and enhanced adoption of innovative technologies that will aid sustainable intensification of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Over 230,000 farmers have adopted sustainable intensification technologies and the project has helped nurture future scientists by supporting more than 40 students pursuing MSc degrees and more than 20 PhD students.
“The SIMLESA project has successfully adapted and disseminated many scalable technologies to smallholder farmers that will help them achieve higher yields with reduced resource use,” said CIMMYT scientist Paswel Marenya, the coordinator of the project. “We have also sought to understand and improve the entire farming system so that farmers are supported through enabling policies, markets and institutional frameworks.”
The SIMLESA project will be coming to an end in 2019. “The lessons learned from SIMLESA can be used by national and international decision makers to help guide their policy, programming and investment priorities in support of achieving sustainable and resilient agricultural systems in Africa,” Marenya said.
To watch a playlist of SIMLESA videos, click here.
Agricultural research for development has tremendous potential for widespread impact in poverty alleviation and food security. However, achieving real benefits for farmers is challenging and many well-intentioned projects fail to achieve large-scale impact. According to Brendan Brown, a postdoctoral research fellow with CIMMYT’s socioeconomics program in Nepal, this is where his work can help.
“There have been decades of work trying to improve agricultural livelihoods, but many of these interventions are yet to have tangible impacts for farmers,” Brown said. “My research seeks to help address this gap, using novel frameworks and applying participatory methods.”
Socioeconomic research at CIMMYT plays a key role at the nexus of agricultural innovations, helping to enhance interventions and initiatives for greater impact. Knowledge from such studies helps to prioritize and target resources, optimizing research capacity and accelerating the uptake of innovations.
“I attempt to understand constraints and opportunities at various scales from farms all the way up to institutional levels,” Brown explained. “I then seek to find pathways to catalyze change that lead to improved farmer livelihoods. Such research is integral to getting agronomic research into farmers’ fields.”
This area of research calls for a mixture of qualitative and quantitative tools and expertise, for which Brown is well suited. He has a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science with a major in Soil Science. “However, after working in agricultural research and development for a few years, I saw a gap in linking agronomy to the contextual realities of smallholder farming, so I opted to pursue a career that bridges the gap between the physical and social sciences.”
A desire to help
Brown grew up in Australia, between Sydney and a family farm on the south coast of New South Wales. He enjoyed being outdoors, “preferably barefoot,” participated in hobby farming, and from an early age showed an interest in social justice issues. A career aptitude test taken towards the end of high school revealed he was suited to be one of three things: a ship captain, a nurse or an agricultural scientist. He opted for the latter.
It was at university that Brown gained the insight of applying his agricultural knowledge to helping smallholder farmers. During a backpacking trip from Cape Town to Cairo, which incorporated some agricultural volunteering, he witnessed first-hand the difficulties farmers face in sub-Saharan Africa. Upon returning to his studies, he resolved to pursue a career that would enable him to help smallholders and, at the same time, address some of the world’s biggest ethical dilemmas.
Research with impact
Newly graduated, Brown worked with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), based in Canberra, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), based in Ghana, where he gained hands-on experience working in agricultural systems in developing countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It also inspired his PhD, which explored the disconnect between development work at research stations and the reality experienced by African farmers.
“During my PhD, I collaborated with CIMMYT through the Sustainable Intensification of Maize Legume Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) initiative. I developed a more nuanced approach to what ‘adoption’ actually means in terms of uptake and impact assessments. I also studied communities’ attitudes to conservation agriculture practices and diagnosed key institutional bottlenecks within research and extension systems.”
Brown’s studies allowed him to develop novel mixed methods and participatory impact pathways to promote new farming practices, such as conservation agriculture, to smallholder farmers in Africa. “My work with CIMMYT allows me to contribute to solving some of the world’s biggest issues. Through interacting with smallholders, facilitating conversations and creating new understanding, I hope to contribute to real change.”
Brendan Brown (left) during a field visit.
Moving to Asia
After spending nearly a decade in and out of Africa, he joined the CIMMYT team in Nepal earlier this year and is relishing the opportunity to explore new contexts in South Asia.
“So much potential exists within the food systems of South Asia given the existence of multiple cropping seasons and diverse markets, as well as exciting developments in the use of mechanization and irrigation that have potential for delivering large-scale benefits, driving improved food security and profits.” However, he points out the integration of such innovations in this part of the world can be challenging due to inherent complex social hierarchies and caste systems. “I still have much to learn within such complex systems.”
Brown’s work in South Asia focusses on understanding the adoption, scaling and impact of sustainable intensification technologies and practices. He is primarily working with the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) initiative, which aims to reduce poverty by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the environment and involving women in agriculture.
By studying the portfolio of CIMMYT-led initiatives in the region, he is also developing his understanding of prevailing sustainable intensification practices and the issues farmers face when implementing them. In addition to his work with SRFSI, Brown is soon to embark on a new ACIAR-funded research project aiming to enhance sustainable mechanization of farming systems in two provinces of Nepal by mobilizing strategic planning and collaboration.
“I look forward to sitting down with local agricultural service providers to understand how they run their businesses and how they structure their livelihoods,” Brown expressed. “This will then be paired with the perspectives of farmers, as well as extension officers, researchers and policymakers to build theories of change and pathways to maximize the uptake and impact of sustainable intensification practices.”
He highlights how local ownership of change can be fostered by implementing participatory methods during this process. This can result in transformative change, felt from the institutional level all the way to the smallholder farmer. Brown hopes his work in South Asia will deliver widespread impact for smallholder farmers and he welcomes collaboration and sharing of ideas and approaches with others working towards similar objectives.
Over two billion people across the world suffer from hidden hunger, the consumption of a sufficient number of calories, but still lacking essential nutrients such as vitamin A, iron or zinc. This can lead to severe health damage, blindness, or even death, particularly among children under the age of five. Furthermore, a recent FAO report estimates the number of undernourished people worldwide at over 800 million, with severe food insecurity and undernourishment increasing in almost all sub-regions of Africa, as well as across South America.
In recognition of World Food Day and the focus of the 2018 World Food Prize on nutrition, the CGIAR Research Centers and Programs reflect on the significance and global impact of biofortification and climate resilient crops – key components in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2: Zero Hunger and 3: Good Health and Wellbeing by 2030.
Biofortification enables scientists to fortify staple crops with micronutrients to address hidden hunger. There are now 290 new varieties of 12 biofortified crops – including maize, wheat and potatoes – being grown in 60 countries, reaching an estimated 10 million farming households.
The first biofortified maize variety was quality protein maize (QPM), developed by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) scientists Evangelina Villegas and Surinder Vasal. QPM features enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan, essential amino acids, which can help reduce malnutrition in children. Villegas and Vasal would later go on to win the World Food Prize in 2000 for this groundbreaking work, and genetic variation found in QPM would serve as the baseline for developing further biofortified products, such as zinc-enriched maize and vitamin A orange maize.
Biofortified, provitamin A enriched maize at an experimental plot in Zambia. Photo: CIMMYT
Several key factors have contributed to the success of biofortification. One is partnership. The CGIAR Centers work with hundreds of partners around the world, from national governments and research institutes through to non-governmental organizations and farmers on the ground. Other factors include the ability to build evidence and conduct thorough monitoring and evaluation, the maintenance of a clear vision on how research will have impact, and coordinated investment.
In considering the future role of biofortification in our evolving agricultural landscape, the article highlights the need to tie up with meeting global goals on sustainable development in terms of food security and improved nutrition, and the importance of ‘future proofing’ new varieties in the face of climate change.
In further support of biofortification, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) recognized the importance of CGIAR’s world-renowned agricultural research in the fight to end global hunger. Support from DFID has been crucial to biofortification work in Africa as well as in the development of drought-tolerant maize by CIMMYT and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), which has increased farmers’ yields by up to 30 per cent, benefitting 20 million people in 13 African countries. Over 300 drought tolerant maize varieties were released by CIMMYT under the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, which ran from 2006 to 2015, and continue to be scaled out and provide benefits to smallholder farmers in the region today. DFID also highlighted the impact of their support to CIMMYT and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) in the development of disease resistant wheat varieties that help avoid food shortages and exacerbated hunger worldwide.
After a prolonged decline in global hunger, findings pointing to a recent increase are alarming. Coupled with uncertainties surrounding food supply due to challenges like changing climates and ever-present crop pests and diseases, the challenges we face are significant. The development and deployment of crops biofortified with nourishing micronutrients and equipped to cope with abiotic and biotic stresses is of fundamental importance. The work of the CGIAR Centers and Research Programs is vital to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and to fuel the fight towards zero hunger by 2030.
CIMMYT maize germplasm bank staff preparing the order for the repatriation of Guatemalan seed varieties. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) maize germplasm bank recently received an award in recognition of its contributions towards the Buena Milpa initiative in Guatemala, which aims to enhance the sustainability of maize systems in the country. Denise Costich, head of the maize germplasm bank, received the award on behalf of CIMMYT during the event ‘Maize of Guatemala: Repatriation, conservation and sustainable use of agro-biodiversity,’ held on September 7, 2018, in Guatemala City.
The seed varieties stored in the CIMMYT germplasm bank were of vital importance in efforts to restore food security in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan, which swept through Guatemala in 2005, leading to 1,500 deaths. Many farmers lost entire crops and some indigenous communities were unable to harvest seed from their traditional maize varieties, known as landraces. Generations of selection by farmers under local conditions had endowed these varieties with resistance to drought, heat, local pests and diseases. Such losses were further exacerbated by the discovery that the entire maize seed collection in Guatemala’s national seed bank had been damaged by humidity; the seeds were vulnerable to insects and fungus and could not be replanted.
In 2016, drawing upon the backup seed stored in its maize germplasm bank in Mexico, CIMMYT sent Guatemalan collaborators seed of 785 native Guatemalan maize varieties, including some of the varieties that had been lost. Collaborators in Guatemala subsequently planted and multiplied the seed from the historic CIMMYT samples, ensuring the varieties grow well under local conditions. On completion of this process, the best materials will be returned to local and national seedbanks in Guatemala, where they will be available for farmers and researchers to grow, study and use in breeding programs.
Jointly hosted by the government of Guatemala through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food and the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the recent ceremony signified the official delivery of the repatriated seed into the national system. Attendees celebrated the importance of maize in Guatemala and witnessed the presentation of repatriated maize collections to local and national Guatemalan seedbank authorities, including the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (ICTA).
“Supporting the seed conservation networks, on both the national and community levels in countries like Guatemala, is a key part of the mission of the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank,” said Costich. “Our collaboration with the Buena Milpa project has enabled the transfer of both seed and seed conservation technologies to improve the food security in communities with maize-centered diets.”
The Buena Milpa initiative in Guatemala is improving storage practices in community seed reserves: tiny, low-tech seed banks meant to serve as backups for villages in cases of catastrophic seed loss. So far, Buena Milpa has enabled 1,800 farmers to access community seed reserves. In addition, 13,000 farmers have applied improved practices and technologies.
The CIMMYT maize germplasm bank, headquartered in Mexico, serves as a backup for farmers and researchers in times of catastrophic seed loss by safeguarding maize genetic diversity, a crucial building block in global food security.
The study shows that landrace abandonment is common when farming passes from one generation to the next. Older farmers were attached to their landraces and continued cultivating them, even in the face of pressing reasons to change or replace them. When the younger generations take over farm management, these landraces are often abandoned. Nonetheless, young farmers still value the cultural importance of landraces.
