Describing Maize (Zea mays L.) Landrace Persistence in the Bajío of Mexico: A Survey of 1940s and 1950s Collection Locations1

Many centers of crop domestication and diversity are experiencing rapid changes in agriculture practices resulting in the loss of crop varieties and the knowledge and customs that have sustained them (Brush 2004; Harlan 1975). Germplasm diversity is threatened by several factors including: replacement by high-yielding varieties, a shift to cash crop cultivation, change in land use, economic incentives to migrate or work off-farm, market integration, a dramatic reduction in the proportion of the population that farms, and infrastructure development (Aguirre et al. 2000; Bellon 2000; Serratos-Hernández 2002; Van Dusen 2000; Zimmerer 1991, 1996). Thus, more economically developed areas may have a greater probability of a loss of traditional landraces (Aguirre et al. 2000). In this paper, we examine sites of early maize (Zea mays) collection (undertaken in the 1940s and 1950s) to assess persistence of traditional varieties in an area of rapid agricultural and socioeconomic change. Since the development of modern (high-yielding or commercial hybrid) crop varieties (MVs), there has been a concern that these are replacing the genetic diversity of important food crops (Harlan 1975; Plucknett et al. 1983). Many proDescribing Maize (Zea mays L.) Landrace Persistence in the Bajío of Mexico: A Survey of 1940s and 1950s Collection Locations1