UCSB Anthropology Brown Bag Lecture Series Presents:

Managing Maize Diversity and Agricultural Development in Oaxaca, Mexico: Can Farmers and Plant Breeders Really Work Together?

By Dr. David Cleveland

ABSTRACT: Both modern industrial agriculture and indigenously-based agriculture are failing small-scale maize farmers in Mexico, and in the southern state of Oaxaca, the site of my research. While many modern varieties of maize have been released, most land planted to maize remains in farmers' traditional or folk varieties; maize yields are low, and increasing at a much slower rate than the population. Rates of emigration and environmental degradation are high. One solution to the problem currently being tried in Oaxaca, and now popular with development agencies, is collaboration between farmers and plant breeders to create improved varieties more appropriate for farmers' growing conditions, and that conserve much of the genetic diversity of farmer varieties. This approach is jeopardized by lack of understanding of how both farmers and breeders value, understand and manage maize varieties and growing environments to improve yields. The purpose of my research is to address this need by analyzing the relationship between farmer knowledge and management of maize varieties and growing environments within the context of household and community risk management. It will also document maize breeder values, knowledge and management, and will analyze the development of a collaborative maize breeding project now beginning in Oaxaca. In 1996 I carried out preliminary field work with two communities in the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca, and began working with maize scientists. The results of this preliminary work illustrate the difficulties of understanding farmer and plant breeder knowledge and management, suggest some new approaches that will be tested in 1997, and lead to reflections on the role of anthropologists in development.



Wednesday May 28, 1997
HSSB 2001A, The Anthropology Conference Room

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