Institutional Change and Discontinuities in Farmers' Use of Hybrid Maize Seed and Fertilizer in Malawi: Findings from the 1996-97 CIMMYT/ MoALD Survey
Institutional Change and Discontinuities in Farmers' Use of Hybrid Maize Seed and Fertilizer in Malawi: Findings from the 1996-97 CIMMYT/ MoALD Survey
复制标题
马拉维农民使用杂交玉米种子和肥料的制度变迁和间断：1996-97 年 CIMMYT/MoALD 调查的结果
DOI：
10.22004/ag.econ.7674
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发表时间：
1998
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
A. Phiri
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
M. Smale;A. Phiri
这项研究记录了马拉维小规模农民使用杂交玉米种子和肥料的情况，以及他们对这些投入的看法，从1989- 1990年到1996- 1997年。其主要目的是确定小农户使用杂交玉米的主要制约因素是杂交玉米种质的可接受性，还是影响其使用的体制改革和政策。该研究还提供了有关对种子技术和种子行业的影响有影响的做法的信息-非常规杂交种的回收（即，保存F1杂种的种子以在随后的季节种植）。最近在1996- 1997年进行的农民调查结果表明，玉米杂交种的谷物质量或产量特性不再限制小农使用F1杂交种子。农民们几乎一致表示，他们希望种植F1杂交种子，但大多数人无法购买他们想要的种子。大量农民回收杂交种子，这并不奇怪，因为马拉维杂交玉米的推广尚处于早期阶段，影响投入使用的政策具有时断时续的性质，而且种子是由政府和非政府组织免费分发的。对于研究人员来说，研究生产具有抵抗回收变质特性的杂交种的前景可能是值得的。除了这一作物育种问题外，国家玉米生产、粮食安全和小农福利等紧迫问题仍有待解决。有资源使用信贷、购买投入、种植经济作物或生产剩余玉米的农民占农民的比例越来越小。在一个像马拉维一样依赖农业的国家，完全依靠私人举措能否改变小农玉米部门，这是值得怀疑的，因为在这个国家，基础设施不足，非农就业机会很少，激励措施不足以在农村地区调动贸易和创造现金。
This study records the use of hybrid maize seed and fertilizer by small-scale farmers in Malawi, as well as their opinions about these inputs, from 1989-90 through 1996-97. Its main purpose is to determine whether the principal constraint to smallholders' use of maize hybrids is the acceptability of the hybrid maize germplasm or the institutional reforms and policies affecting its use. The study also provides information about a practice that has implications for the impact of seed technologies and seed industries - the recycling of nonconventional hybrids (i.e., saving seed of an F1 hybrid to plant in subsequent seasons). Findings of the most recent farmer survey in 1996-97 demonstrate that the grain quality or yield characteristics of maize hybrids no longer constrain smallholders' use of F1 hybrid seed. Farmers stated almost unanimously that they wanted to grow F1 hybrid seed, but most could not purchase as much seed as they wished. A large number of farmers recycle hybrid seed, which is not surprising, given the early stages of diffusion of hybrid maize in Malawi, the start-stop nature of policies affecting input use, and free seed distributed by the government and NGOs. It may be worthwhile for researchers to investigate prospects for producing hybrids whose characteristics resist deterioration from recycling. Aside from this plant breeding issue, pressing concerns of national maize production, food security, and the welfare of smallholders remain to be addressed. Farmers with the resources to use credit, purchase inputs, grow cash crops, or produce maize surpluses represent a smaller and smaller percentage of farmers. It is doubtful whether complete reliance on private initiatives can transform the smallholder maize sector in a country that relies on agriculture as much as Malawi, but where infrastructure is inadequate, nonfarm employment opportunities are few, and incentives are insufficient to mobilize trade and generate cash in rural areas.