Document(s) 2 of 4

Small-scale farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico, whose farming traditions are threatened, now have access to more native corn varieties from across the region, allowing them to breed local strains more adaptable to environmental challenges. This has been made possible by new tools and incentives provided through an innovative IDRC-funded program.

The farmers use a multitude of maize (corn) varieties – landraces – that are “very well adapted to harsh environments and poor soils, and require very few investments,” explains former International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) scientist Mauricio Bellon.

By the late 1990s, commercial hybrid varieties were being promoted, and some traditional landraces had been lost. If the trend continued, farmers might become dependent on new varieties requiring expensive pesticides, fertilizers, and irrigation. Having to buy hybrids from seed companies every year also threatened the farmers’ economic viability.

With IDRC support, CIMMYT and the Mexican natural resource agency INIFAP canvassed farmers and catalogued the attributes of preferred varieties. These varieties were then “frozen in time” in maize gene banks.

Farmers were then given access to landraces from these gene banks, allowing them to cross-breed new maize types that could adapt to changing environmental conditions. Farmers also benefited from new storage facilities, allowing them to save maize for sale in future years when prices were higher.

These incentives bolstered the farmers’ determination to preserve Oaxaca’s biodiversity. Says former IDRC project manager Daniel Buckles: “Today, people are still on the land, raising families, generating incomes, and managing the diversity that is there.”

"The varieties of maize that the farmers create are like lottery tickets. They provide you the chance of winning in the future when you don’t know what’s going to happen in the environment. That’s the value of this for the world: The farmers are generating the winning combinations that can adapt to changing climate and production conditions." Mauricio Bellon, former CIMMYT project manager

IDRC's LASTING IMPACTS  > MANAGING NATURAL RESOURCES

Document(s) 2 of 4