Very few Malawians have been able to select a maize variety in the field before buying it in the market. Mother/baby trials are sets of experiments conducted by farming communities whose objective is to evaluate released and pre-released cultivars under farmer-managed conditions and get feedback from farmers who will select cultivars of their choice. For each Mother trial, there are as many as 6-12 corresponding Baby trials within walking or bicycling distance. The mother trial designed by researchers, evaluates a set of promising maize cultivars under optimal and farmer-representative management conditions. It is located in the center of a farming community, often at a secondary school/college or a progressive farmer or at research stations. A local counterpart (a teacher of agriculture, an extension officer or a staff member of a non- governmental organization) manages the mother trial. All baby trials contain a subset of the cultivars in the mother (no more than four) and are planted and managed exclusively by the local farmers that host them. Malawian farmers have made their choices. The common factor has shown that the best maize varieties do well and farmers choose them. Concern Universal and World Vision International (NGOs) participated in conducting the trials. Sites were as follows:- Chitedze-2 mother + 6 babies, Makoka -1 mother + 6 babies, Bvumbwe -1 mother + 6 babies; Kabwato- 1 mother + 6 babies, Linthipe- 1 mother + 6 babies and the rest had run mother trials only:- Bembeke, Ngabu, Mbawa, Chitala, Baka, Lupembe, Bolero, Bunda, Nsipe, Mponela and Kapiri. The field days conducted on these trials (on-farm) last season were an eye-opener to the Ministry of Agriculture since the voice of the Malawian farmers has now been heard. Farmers were taken to visit the trials at milky stage and at harvest for them to identify a variety of their choice. Farmers chose the following varieties:- ZM 521, Masika, Lat A x Lat B, 297 syn gls (A) -f2#, synthetic DRT- SR # (CIMMYT-Ken), ZM 621, ZM 621 flint. These varieties were chosen for the following reasons:- high yielding, flintiness, early maturing and resistance to diseases. Most of all, the trial will enable both the Malawian farmers and the seed multipliers to flourish in the market with the right material at the right time to the right area. Varieties reach the farmers through the formal seed sector though there is a big problem to convince a seed company to multiply an Open Pollinated Variety (OPV) unless there is a ready market for it. Seed companies in Malawi hate the fact that an open pollinated variety is bound to be recycled. The seed companies of Malawi chose to multiply hybrids since farmers are going to buy the seed every year.

English

0410|AGRIS 0401|AL-Maize Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection