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Socio-economic and environmental changes related to maize richness in Mexico’s central highlands

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Abstract

The occurrence of genetic erosion in local maize varieties in Mexico is intensely debated. Recent publications from Mexico show contradicting results about the loss of local varieties. Genetic erosion is a complex process, and well-documented examples of actual genetic erosion are not common in the literature. We worked in a region in which adoption of improved varieties was negligible, but other factors affecting maize agriculture were at play. The objectives of the study were to describe changes in maize diversity in the last 10 years and to associate them with socio-economic and environmental changes in a region in Mexico’s Central Highlands. We used richness and abundance of local varieties and diversity indices of races as indicators of maize diversity changes over time. We analyzed statistics and based on interviews we evaluated maize diversity changes between 2005 and 2015. We interviewed 113 farmers on two occasions with intervals from 5 to 10 years. According to climate statistics, rain has declined and temperature has increased. We also found a decrease in the lake level during the past 35 years. The total population in the region has doubled since the 1960s. The indigenous population has not changed significantly. Number of people working in agriculture has decreased since the 1960s. Rain fed agriculture decreased 8.1 % from 1990 to 2007. In four villages studied, farmed land area had decreased between 1995 and 2015. This reduction varies between 22 and 39 % depending on the village. Maize planted area decreased from 9675 to 8115 ha from 2003 to 2014. In the same period, avocado plantations grew from 34 to 786 ha. In despite of these changes, we did not find significant changes in average landraces per farmer (2.13 ± 0.28 in 2015) nor per village (4.15 ± 1.26 in 2015). Significant changes in maize races were not found either (1.91 ± 0.26 per farmer, 2.85 ± 0.86 per village in 2015). These results show that maize landrace diversity in the region is resilient but dynamic.

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Abbreviations

CDI:

Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas (National Commission for Indigenous People Development)

CICESE:

Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (Scientific Research and Higher Education Center from Ensenada)

DEN:

Departamento de Estadística Nacional (National Statistics Department)

DGE:

Dirección General de Estadística (General Direction for Statistics)

INEGI:

Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (National Institute for Statistics and Geography)

LPR:

Lake Pátzcuaro Region

MASL:

Meters above sea level

MXP:

Mexican pesos

PNUD:

Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (United Nations Development Programme)

SIAP:

Sistema de Información Agroalimentaria y Pesquera (Information System for Agriculture, Food and Fishery)

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Acknowledgments

We thank the farmers from the Patzcuaro Lake Region for participating in the interviews. We also thank Grupo de Tecnología Rural Apropiada A. C. for logistic support; Carmen Patricio for field assistance; Luz María García and Jorge Odenthal for sharing data. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments. We also appreciate the financial assistance provided by both the UNAM-DGAPA-PAPIIT (No. IN-210015) and the Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad. First author thanks Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for a postdoctoral scholarship (2015).

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  1. Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, Col. San José de la Huerta, 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

    Quetzalcóatl Orozco-Ramírez & Marta Astier

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Orozco-Ramírez, Q., Astier, M. Socio-economic and environmental changes related to maize richness in Mexico’s central highlands. Agric Hum Values 34, 377–391 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-016-9720-5

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