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Maize (Zea mays L.) management in Yaxcaba, Yucatan, during the twentyfirst century’s first decade is consistent with an overall loss of landrace diversity in southeast Mexico

Maize (Zea mays L.) management in Yaxcaba, Yucatan, during the twentyfirst century’s first decade... The status of genetic resource conservation in centers of crop diversity remains disputed. Recent case-study findings of persistent maize diversity in Yaxcaba, Yucatan, a municipality in southeast Mexico, have raised questions on earlier reports of widespread losses across the crop’s center of diversity in Mexico. We break down patterns in maize varietal richness in southeast Mexico to show that temporal trends in Yaxcaba are subsumed under spatial variation in this broader region and consistent with an overall loss of diversity. Persistence of diversity in Yaxcaba can be explained by conditions that allowed subsistence farmers to continue sowing land even as maize prices dropped, but these conditions may be rare in Mexico and likely to change. Yaxcaba emerges as a rare community of exceptional diversity from which valuable policy lessons can be drawn. We find that gaps and omissions in the Mexican Government’s strategy for maize conservation have excluded Yaxcaba and likely resulted in an ineffective intervention elsewhere in the Peninsula. An integrated-systems perspective should help us develop a coherent strategy for resource conservation and climate adaptation based on more efficient and equitable instruments. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution Springer Journals

Maize (Zea mays L.) management in Yaxcaba, Yucatan, during the twentyfirst century’s first decade is consistent with an overall loss of landrace diversity in southeast Mexico

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References (105)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Subject
Life Sciences; Plant Sciences; Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Physiology; Agriculture
ISSN
0925-9864
eISSN
1573-5109
DOI
10.1007/s10722-017-0507-3
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The status of genetic resource conservation in centers of crop diversity remains disputed. Recent case-study findings of persistent maize diversity in Yaxcaba, Yucatan, a municipality in southeast Mexico, have raised questions on earlier reports of widespread losses across the crop’s center of diversity in Mexico. We break down patterns in maize varietal richness in southeast Mexico to show that temporal trends in Yaxcaba are subsumed under spatial variation in this broader region and consistent with an overall loss of diversity. Persistence of diversity in Yaxcaba can be explained by conditions that allowed subsistence farmers to continue sowing land even as maize prices dropped, but these conditions may be rare in Mexico and likely to change. Yaxcaba emerges as a rare community of exceptional diversity from which valuable policy lessons can be drawn. We find that gaps and omissions in the Mexican Government’s strategy for maize conservation have excluded Yaxcaba and likely resulted in an ineffective intervention elsewhere in the Peninsula. An integrated-systems perspective should help us develop a coherent strategy for resource conservation and climate adaptation based on more efficient and equitable instruments.

Journal

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution – Springer Journals

Published: Mar 16, 2017

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