A Minor Role for Environmental Adaptation in Local–Scale Maize Landrace Distribution: Results from a Common Garden Experiment in Oaxaca, Mexico. Agronomists usually assume that yield is a primary selection trait for farmers practicing traditional agriculture. They hypothesize that the landraces grown in farmers’ fields produce higher yields than other local landraces would, if grown in the same fields. We test this hypothesis in experimental gardens using maize landraces grown by indigenous farmers in a low– to mid–elevation region in Oaxaca, Mexico. We selected four villages, two Chatino and two Mixtec, two in low and two in middle elevations. We planted reciprocal common gardens in each village, in order to test whether or not local maize landraces were higher yielding in their respective villages—a finding that would suggest they are selected because they are better adapted to local conditions than landraces from other villages. We also tested resistance to a fungal disease (ear rot caused by Fusarium) that is cited by farmers in the region as a major problem for maize production. We found that maize samples planted in their villages of origin did not in general have higher yields than samples from other villages. There are significant interactions among common garden site, fertilizer use, and seed source. We found that landraces from the Chatino lowlands village perform well in most sites, with and without fertilizer. Regarding ear rot, there is some evidence that landraces are less susceptible when grown away from their villages of origin. These results suggest that social factors, such as seed networks and ethno–linguistic membership, may be more important than local environmental adaptation in determining the distribution of landraces in this region.
La adaptación ambiental juega un rol menor en la distribución de maíces a escala local: resultados de un experimento de jardines recíprocos en Oaxaca, México. En la práctica agrícola generalmente se asume que el rendimiento es una de las razones por las cuales los agricultores tradicionales seleccionan una variedad local. Esto conlleva a la hipótesis de que los cultivares que utilizan los agricultores son los que tienen los rendimientos más altos en comparación con otros cultivares de la región. Nosotros probamos esta hipótesis estudiando las variedades utilizadas por agricultores indígenas en una región con un rango altitudinal de 400 a 1300 msnm en Oaxaca, México. Seleccionamos cuatro localidades, dos chatinas y dos mixtecas, dos a baja altitud y dos a altitud media. Establecimos jardines recíprocos en cada una para probar si los maíces de cada localidad producían más que los de otras localidades. Esto podría sugerir que esos cultivares fueron seleccionados porque están mejor adaptados a las condiciones locales. También probamos resistencia a enfermedades por hongos (pudrición causada por Fusarium spp) porque esta enfermedad fue mencionada por los agricultores como una de las principales en el cultivo de maíz. Los resultados mostraron que las muestras plantadas en la localidad donde fueron colectadas no siempre tienen los mayores rendimientos en comparación con muestras de otras localidades. Encontramos interacciones significativas entre el sitio de la parcela, fertilización y la localidad de origen de la muestra. Las muestras de la localidad chatina localizada a baja elevación tuvieron mejor rendimiento en la mayoría de los sitios, con y sin fertilizante. En relación a pudrición de la mazorca, hay un poco de evidencia de que los cultivares son menos susceptibles cuando se siembran lejos de su localidad de origen. Estos resultados sugieren que factores sociales, tales como redes de semillas y pertenencia a un grupo étnico, podrían ser más importantes que la adaptación local en la determinación de la distribución de variedades locales en esta región.
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We thank farmers and municipal authorities in Santiago Amoltepec and Santa Cruz Zenzontepec, Oaxaca. Financial support was provided by CONACyT and UC MEXUS (doctoral scholarship 2009) and a UC MEXUS dissertation grant (2011) to the first author. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions to improve the manuscript.
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Orozco–Ramírez, Q., Brush, S.B., Grote, M.N. et al. A Minor Role for Environmental Adaptation in Local–Scale Maize Landrace Distribution: Results from a Common Garden Experiment in Oaxaca, Mexico1 . Econ Bot 68, 383–396 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-014-9285-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-014-9285-4