Triticale production in the Central Mexican highlands: smallholders' experiences and lessons for research

Abstract

Triticale, a cross between wheat and rye, yields more than ita parent species under two kinds of marginal conditions: highland areas where acid soils and foliar diseases are a problem and semiarid areas where drought stress frequently affects crop production. This paper examines triticale utilization patterns among smallholders in one tropical montane region, the central Mexican highlands, where farmers have cultivated triticale for over 20 years. In the central Mexican highlands, smallholders' internet in triticale originally derived from their experiments with the crop as animal forage and feed, and only briefly shifted to triticale's potential as a food crop when markets appeared to be developing. Future research to meet smallholders' need for forage and feed triticales may necessitate a reconsideration of the current emphasis on complete triticale types. The diversity of microenvironments sown to triticale in the central Mexican highlands, and the decades-long experience of smallholders in growing the crop and collaborating with researchers from several disciplines, will continue to make the area a valuable location for work on forage and feed triticale.