To fully assess the impact of new technologies on farmers we need to shift the focus of research from ‘crops’ or ‘commodities’ to the impact pathway which links improved crop germplasm and management to household well-being. ...

Identifying the appropriate germplasm to be improved is a key component of any participatory breeding effort because of its implications for impacts on social welfare and genetic diversity. This paper describes a method ...

Data from a 1994 survey of 82 farmers who grow maize on steep hillsides in Motozintla, Chiapas, provided information on agricultural practices, including the adoption of conservation tillage practices; the profitability ...

The principal advantage of in situ conservation is that it allows adaptive evolutionary processes to continue in the species that are being conserved. For a cultivated crop species, in situ conservation involves farmers' ...

This paper summarizes factors affecting the agricultural and environmental potential of conservation tillage in maize-based farming systems in Mexico. The author begins by describing some of the implications of soil ...

This paper reviews trends in rainfed maize production in Mexico over the past several decades, and the experience of lNIFAP/ CIMMYT/ CIRAD on-farm research (OFR) in Mexico's lowland tropics, to evaluate the prospects for ...

This paper describes results of a study of the main factors affecting the development of the maize seed industries in Brazil and Mexico (and, by extension, other developing countries). The authors develop a framework that ...

This paper focuses on intensifying maize-based cropping systems in the Sierra de Santa Marta Region of Veracruz, Mexico. Following a description of the study area, the paper examines the historical forces that have shaped ...

This study explores factors associated with farmers' decision to experiment with velvetbean (Mucuna spp.), a green manure, as a maize intercrop in three villages of Veracruz, Mexico. To asses whether velvetbean might be ...

The main farming systems of the Texizapan watershed in southern Veracruz, Mexico (200-1,640 meters above sea level) were characterized through a formal survey in 1995. Farm-level data included an inventory of resources ...