Local Solutions to Local Problems
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Honduran Farmers Develop and Release Two New Maize Varieties
May 2006
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Dona Simeona displays a few of the varieties of maize grown in Santa Cruz
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“Now we have really good seed, and people are coming to us to acquire it.”
Dona Simeona and the other CIAL members recognized an existing problem in the annual bouts of heavy rainfall and hurricane-force winds in the region. And with the number of hurricanes increasing in recent years, the weather was causing more and more frequent crop failure in maize fields because maize is prone to lodging – the flattening of standing crops by wind or rain.
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At the release ceremony, Dona Simeona took visitors to the fields to explain the selection process
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“Together, we have identified our biggest farming problems and are working on solutions ourselves.”
Santa Cruz is a cross between Capulin and a variety of maize improved by professional plant breeders called HB104. This cross, carried out by the CIAL, managed to reduce the stature of Capulin by 0.5 metres and raised average yield by 571 Kg/ha. Whereas HB104 was normally only grown in valleys and foothills, Santa Cruz grows well at altitudes between 900 and 1,200 masl.
Members of CIAL Santa Cruz are understandably proud of what they have achieved. After the official local release, Dona Simeona said, “I feel good about having participated in the process to improve our maize. Now we have really good seed, and people are coming to us to acquire it.”
Around 150 people from across Honduras attended the launch – farmers from other CIALs, government officials, development workers, and students. An entire class taking plant-breeding courses at the national Agricultural University came to learn how farmers manage the selection process.
Visitors were organized into groups and members of the CIAL, including Dona Simeona, took each group to the fields to see the new varieties and explain the selection process. The tour was entirely farmer-led – a celebration of farmers’ knowledge.
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| Dona Simeona presents one of the new maize varieties being released throughout the country |
Communities in Control
Towards the end of the assembly, in front of all the visitors, the local Jesuit priest blessed the new seeds, which were then symbolically handed over to the municipality, representing the CIAL’s desire to share with fellow farmers and friends. To protect against biopiracy, a special municipal act was passed, recognizing the seed as originating from CIAL Santa Cruz for use by hillside farmers.
As they departed, visitors from other CIALs each carried away bags of Santa Cruz and Capulin Mejorado for testing in their own fields. The CIAL network, which includes more than 900 farmer-researchers, acts as a means of scaling out farmer-led innovation across the region. That will help farmers throughout Honduras – farmers like Dona Simeona – to be better prepared for next year’s hurricane season.
They knew the problem was that the most popular local maize variety – known as Capulin – was too tall. “Capulin is highly prized by local people,” says Dona Simeona, “but the plant is typically very tall and risks being knocked over by the wind.”
Typically, women select seed for storage as they shuck the maize for food preparation. The grain from large, healthy cobs is retained for planting the following season. Unfortunately, large cobs are linked genetically to tall stalks. Over time, this practice has produced taller and taller maize.
Sharing Success
With FIPAH’s help, the CIAL started using varietal selection to reduce the stature without losing the yield advantages associated with taller maize. They achieved their goal, and last October they released two varieties for use throughout the country – Santa Cruz and Capulin Mejorado.
Through continuous selection and breeding, farmers succeeded in reducing the stature of Capulin. With Capulin Mejorado, they reduced stature by an average of 0.4 metres while increasing average yield by as much as 1,038 Kg/ha. Capulin Mejorado has all the beneficial traits of Capulin, such as broad adaptability to altitudes between 1,000 and 1,800 meters above sea level (masl) where these farmers live, as well as yield and height benefits.
Most of
Agricultural research in Honduras has traditionally neglected the needs of small-scale farmers. Farmers like Dona Simeona Perez, from the village of Santa Cruz in the mountains near Yor
o, have had little help from researchers, who focus their efforts on the needs of commercial farmers.
So, like many of her fellow farmers, Dona Simeona has stopped looking to scientists for help. For the past five years, she has been focusing on the work of a community-driven agricultural research team, known by the Spanish acronym CIAL. She says, “Together, we have identified our biggest farming problems and are working on solutions ourselves.”
Local Solutions
The CIAL in Santa Cruz is one of about 60 across Honduras doing similar work under the guidance of FIPAH – the Foundation for Participatory Research with Honduran Farmers. FIPAH – USC Canada’s Honduran partner on the Seeds of Survival Program – is one of only a handful of research NGOs in Honduras recognized by the government. FIPAH provides technical assistance to the farmer-researchers that comprise the CIALs. CIAL members then share their results within their communities and with other CIALs.
Instead of assuming that technicians and scientists are the main source of agricultural knowledge, FIPAH recognizes farmers as local experts whose knowledge must be incorporated into the process of problem solving in marginal agricultural areas. That approach has been so successful that the farmers have been able to develop and release two improved maize varieties – bred locally in Santa Cruz.
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