The importance of improved maize varieties in meeting the food security needs of Guatemalans is outstanding. In a recent survey of families in the Guatemalan Highlands, it was found that 100% of households consumed an average of 318 grams of maize per day, mostly in the form of tortillas. Yet, the outreach of ICTA-improved maize varieties among poor households in the Western Highlands is very scarce, with more failing than successful initiatives to date. These improved varieties (lower and apparently more yielding) could represent a good asset for resource-poor families cultivating very small landplots in steep hillsides: they could produce more grain for those food insecure farmers. However important maize may be in the farmers´ diet, the daily amount of maize consumed is far from sufficient to meet energy requirements and, as an example, the Department of Sololá, where the Kaqchikel, K'iche' and Tz'utujil indigenous groups make up about 94% of the population, suffers very high chronic undernutrition rates (73% of children between 8-11 years) and severe poverty prevalence (32% of extreme poverty and 76% of poverty) . In Sololá, improved varieties of maize have made little headway due to the continued reliance on landraces obtained primarily through family (Figure 1).

However, local landraces of maize have particularly long growing seasons, suffer from lodging (bending over of plants) due to their high stalks, and have low yields. FAO, through the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), in conjunction with the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA), the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (ICTA), and supported by a PhD candidate of Wageningen University (The Netherlands), developed a participatory maize selection trial to improve the availability of suitable landraces for the local farmers in the municipality of Sololá.

Germplasm of 68 local varieties was collected from 38 Kaqchiquel families originating from two different communities in the municipality: Chaquijyá and Oratorio (see Map 1). Seven improved maize varieties developed for Guatemalan highlands by ICTA supplemented the local germplasm in the trial. In total, 75 varieties of maize were planted in each of four different plots of land at various locations and altitudes (3 plots in Chaquijyá and 1 plot in San Andrés Sametabaj, between 1,800 and 2,400 masl). The experimental design of the trial was developed by ICTA to control for environmental effects. The trial took place during the 2003 May-December growing season and the maize crops were maintained by farmers in a manner consistent with local practices.

Map 1. Study Area in Solola Department (SPFS Guatemala is working here since 2000)

To carry out the participatory selection, a group of men and women from these two communities where SPFS is working visited the plots in September and October. Using their own evaluation criteria, they observed unmarked maize plants and selected their first, second and third most preferred varieties by depositing bills valued at 10, 5 and 1 quetzals (the local currency) into baskets next to each variety. In total, 56 different landraces received at least 1 point. In discussions with the farmers, they explained that selections were based upon such aspects as plant precocity, flowering precocicty, the height of the plant and the size and colour of the stem, the latter features mostly appreciated by women.