Mexico, known as the “cradle of maize”, is home to much of the crop’s genetic diversity. Across the country, smallholder farmers are the guardians of much of this diversity, planting “heirloom” maize varieties known as landraces. However, limited access to markets threaten farmers’ ability to continue growing their traditional maize. The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) and partners are working to help smallholder farmers market their maize to national and international buyers at a fair price, improving lives and livelihoods while giving farmers stronger incentives to conserve valuable genetic resources in their fields.

Landraces are descendants of ancient maize varieties that have been handed down through generations and have adapted to different climates and regions of Mexico, developing special traits such as resistance to local stresses like drought, heat or disease, in addition to unique qualities and flavor that local communities prize for use in traditional foods. Not only is this genetic diversity crucial in the development of improved stress-tolerant maize varieties, the unique taste and colors of this ancient maize are now coveted by consumers around the world. However, many of the farmers that grow these landrace varieties live in marginalized rural communities with little access to larger markets. MAIZE and partners, such as the National Institute of Research on Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock (INIFAP), are working to help change this.

As part of efforts to help organize smallholder farmers, researchers began training farmers to provide excess grain at a reasonable price negotiated on a group basis. In the past, many of these rural smallholder farmers have been forced to accept extremely low, unfair prices for their maize in order to have money for farming inputs such as labor and fertilizer, due to lack of access to formal markets. With funding from MAIZE, these farmers are learning how to access markets, based on knowledge of quality requirements, grain moisture and aflatoxin testing, and the use of hermetic bags to prevent insect damage during storage and transportation. Researchers also advise farmers on demand of specific maize color variants from culinary markets so that they can plant accordingly. One of the farmer groups sent its first container of nearly 20 tons of a local landrace to a company in the USA, which sells to more than 60 high-end restaurants. A major restaurant chain in Mexico has also approached the group of farmers.

“As rural smallholder farmers, we haven’t been able to take advantage of the market on a larger scale,” said Jaime Ariza Franco, one of the local farmers. “In the past we have only been able to sell in to local intermediaries, and sometimes have had to accept extremely low, unfair prices in order to feed our families. We know that our maize has incredible flavor and quality, and are excited that it will now be enjoyed and appreciated by an international audience.”

Daniel Sanchez, the son of one of the farmers in the group, is hopeful about the prospects this partnership has for his family. He hopes to go to college to become an agricultural engineer, and now that his family has received the training necessary to sell to an international market, this dream could become a reality. “Before we could only sell our maize in Mexico at very low prices that didn’t even cover our basic expenses. Now that we have access to better national and international markets, things will get better for my family.”