Agronomic and Economic Competitiveness of Maize Landraces and in Situ Conservation in Mexico

Abstract

When public attention initially focused on the conservation of crop genetic resources in the late 1960s, scientists advocated ex situ conservation because of their belief that modern varieties would inevitably replace traditional varieties (Frankel, 1970a, 1970b). This belief was based on two key assumptions. The first, explicit assumption is that modern varieties are always superior to traditional varieties in yield and economic profitability. A second, implicit assumption is that all farmers share the objective of maximizing expected profits. Since superior modern varieties would sooner or later replace landraces, in situ conservation of crops was dismissed a priori as non-viable. Interventions such as subsidies would be required to maintain cultivation of traditional varieties in the face of the high opportunity costs of growing them (Ford-Lloyd and Jackson, 1986), especially as greater food production was needed to feed the ever- increasing world population.