Abstract
Small-scale studies on long-term change in agricultural knowledge might uncover insights with broader, regional implications. This article evaluates change in farmer knowledge about crop genetic resources in highland Guatemala between 1927/37 and 2004. It concentrates on maize (Zea mays ssp. mays L.) in one Guatemalan township, Jacaltenango, an area with much ecological and maize diversity. It relies on a particular type of baseline information: lists of farmer-defined cultivars drawn up by ethnographers in the first half of the twentieth century. A questionnaire format based on two independent lists of local farmer cultivars dating from 1927 and 1937 was used to assess changes in maize diversity. Comparisons between attributes given to each cultivar in the past and in 2004 were used as a partial test of the stability of cultivar identity. In farmers' perceptions, cultivar loss was low and limited to certain cultivars adapted to the warmer environments. Crop production problems were mentioned as the main motives for change. No evidence for a loss of cultivars due to the political violence of the 1980s was found. In the lower areas many newly introduced cultivars were found, which reportedly provide solutions for the production problems the older cultivars have. The article contrasts these findings with those of an earlier study which suggested much cultivar loss due to political violence, and draws conclusions about the methodological implications.
Highlights
The intraspecific genetic diversity of crops in farmers' fields has increasingly received attention due to several convergent social and academic concerns
Cultivar names On basis of the criteria applied in this study, cultivar names were generally consistently related to biological characteristics
In the few cases a disagreement was detected, often a reasonable explication was available. This suggests that cultivar names generally refer to the same units of maize diversity, as distinguished by farmers
Summary
The intraspecific genetic diversity of crops in farmers' fields has increasingly received attention due to several convergent social and academic concerns. Crop genetic innovations for and by poor farming households have become an important focus of food security research [1]. Since the early 1970s, concerns over the loss of genetic diversity as maintained in traditional agriculture ('genetic erosion') have spurred research as well [3]. Enhancement and protection of crop diversity has received some international acclaim. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2004) obliges the signing countries to "promote or support, as appropriate, farmers and local communities' efforts to manage and conserve on-farm their plant genetic resources for food and agriculture."
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