Mexico
March, 2007
Source:
CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 3, March 2007
Farmers trust each other when
they save and trade traditional seed in the Central Valleys of
Oaxaca, Mexico. Gaining their trust may help CIMMYT and its
partners in Mexico improve their livelihoods.
“If there is no maize, what do we eat! It is the same as if
there was no water—without water, what would we drink?” asks
Doña María of Santa Ana Zegache in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca
in southeastern Mexico.
For farmers like María, maize is the staple and most important
foodstuff, and many feel an affection for their maize as their
sustainer through the years. Saving seed and caring for your
maize is part of what it means to be a good farmer and to be
held in esteem by the community, and provides a link with
previous generations.
The informal seed systems that ensure seed availability are
vital to farmers’ livelihoods and food security and to the
viability of smallholder agriculture. The region is also a
center of genetic diversity for maize, and seed practices play a
major role in shaping and maintaining this diversity—which in
turn affects the germplasm supply for future crop breeding.
“If we seek to strengthen smallholder seed supply or the
conservation of crop genetic diversity at the local level, we
need to understand how farmers’ seed systems function,” says
Lone Badstue, a rural development sociologist who recently
concluded her doctoral thesis work at CIMMYT.(1) “For
agricultural research and interventions to make sense and be
useful and accessible to individual small-scale farm households,
they must be grounded in an understanding of real-life
situations at the local level, and people’s ways of negotiating
these.”
There has been little detailed study of how seed systems work at
this level. However, Badstue has generated just such in-depth
insight in her work with traditional maize farmers in the
Central Valleys of Oaxaca. There are few formal seed suppliers
in the region, and almost all farmers grow indigenous maize
landraces. In addition to saving seed from year to year, farmers
tend periodically to acquire new seed increasing the range of
varieties they grow. They also mix the new seed with their old
seed to give their maize desired traits from the new variety.
Finally they obtain new seed to make up for partial or complete
seed loss. Many farmers are frequent experimenters, trying out
new varieties on small areas. In this way they reduce the risk
of adopting a new variety.
Badstue’s study highlights the need to understand farmer’s
perspectives and practical approaches, and to link them with
scientists’ models and perceptions of seed systems. She also
analyzes the social organization of seed supply, emphasizing the
roles and workings of social relations and trust. Farmers rely
on information from the supplier about the quality and
appropriateness of seed; they strongly prefer to obtain seed
from people they know and trust. These transactions take place
within a broader framework of social relationships and a culture
of mutual assistance.
Under current conditions, these local maize seed practices
appear to work effectively. They provide farmers with a
relatively secure, low-cost supply of seed and a range of valued
varieties that meet local production and consumption objectives
and are adapted to local agro-ecological conditions. Farmers’
seed practices also maintain and conserve maize genetic
diversity.
However, maize yields in this region are low, and farmers face
losses from drought and grain storage pests. There is therefore
potential for improved seed or other interventions to help
farmers improve their livelihoods. Because trust is such a key
issue, there is a need to find effective and trusted ways to
share information and technology with farmers, for example by
using partners on the ground, such as non-government and
community-based organizations, or by working with respected
farmers as seed dealers. At the same time, Badstue concludes, it
may in the future become necessary to actively support seed
flows between farmers to strengthen the conservation of maize
genetic diversity in the field and ensure farmers’ access to a
range of varieties, for example by organizing seed fairs.
“Studies like this demonstrate the importance of understanding
farmers’ motivations and the context they are operating in—in
socioeconomic as well as agro-environmental terms,” says
Jonathan Hellin, CIMMYT poverty specialist. “In the past,
improved germplasm often has not been taken up by smallholder
farmers, but a thorough understanding of local practices allows
CIMMYT and other organizations involved in agricultural
development, to assess the likely impact pathways of new
technologies and other interventions, and so to target them more
effectively to farmers’ needs.”
This work is part of a broader program to understand maize
genetic diversity and farmer practices in the Central Valleys
and in other regions of southern Mexico. Through its work in
Mexico and throughout the developing world, CIMMYT continues to
compile a wealth of information on diverse farming systems and
an understanding of the need for locally-targeted involvement
with local partners.
For information: Jonathan Hellin, Poverty Specialist, (j.hellin@cgiar.org)
(1) Badstue, L.B. 2006. Smallholder seed practices: Maize seed
management in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. PhD thesis,
Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Recently published in
book form.
Source:
http://www.cimmyt.org/english/wps/news/2007/mar/seeingSeed.htm
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