Corn Dossier 2024

All Items

• Gabriela Alban, José Velásquez, Francisco Carvajal, Mario Caviedes

  Study of the productive efficiency of (Zea mays L.) amylaceous and hard corn in Ecuador

  In Ecuador, corn production is mainly concentrated in the tropical and Andean regions, with variations in grain texture, color, production levels, and productivity. The objective of this study was to estimate the efficiency of corn production and productivity, as well as seed production in the two most important geographic regions of Ecuador. To make these estimates, a simple regression analysis (p ≤ 0.05) was used, considering the crop cycle as independent variables and production, grain productivity, and seed production as dependent variables. It is estimated that the planted area for 2023 was 362,196 hectares, with hard yellow and amylaceous corn. In the coastal region, the main producing provinces are Los Ríos and Manabí, which contribute 73 % of the total production of hard yellow corn; and in the Andean region, production is mainly located in the provinces of Bolívar, Chimborazo, and Cotopaxi, which account for 82 % of the national production of amylaceous corn. The productivity of the two types of corn varies. Hard yellow corn had an average of 4.17 ha-1 from 2018 to 2023, while amylaceous corn had an average of 1.31 ha-1 from 2018 to 2022. Over the next five years, an annual increase of 8.8 % in amylaceous corn productivity is estimated, while over the next six years, the productivity of hard yellow corn is projected to increase by 3.0 % annually. Seed is one of the most important components of agricultural production, and its production costs are an indicator of the rural environment. The supply is limited in the Andean region: projections indicate an annual increase of 5.8 % over the next five years. In the coastal region, the supply and demand for seed is covered by private companies, and there is no deficit for this important component of production. One of the types of corn that will have higher demand is black corn, due to its high nutritional value. The profitability estimates for the production of quality seed of this type of corn, with a benefit/cost ratio between 1.58 and 1.70, indicate that the production of black amylaceous corn seed is profitable.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3401

• María Gabriela Albán

  The Vital Role of Networking

  In the ever-evolving field of science, networking has emerged as a critical mechanism for fostering collaboration, enhancing knowledge transfer, and accelerating innovation. Challenges, particularly those related to food security, climate change, health, energy, and sustainability, require collective action across disciplines and borders. It is through effective networks that scientists, researchers, policy makers, and practitioners can address the complex problems of today and tomorrow.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3695

• Astrid Racancoj Coyoy, Glenda Edelmira Perez, Johny Fernando Patal Gomez

  Prospection of corn tar spot complex at central highlands of Guatemala

  Tar spot complex (TSC)  is a corn disease associated with the presence of three fungi: the first two pathogens being Phyllachora maydis and Monographella maydis, and the hyperparasite of the stromas of P. maydis known as Coniothyrium phyllachorae. This disease affects the yield of the crop, which can sometimes lead to total loss. It has predominated in tropical areas, characterized by high temperatures and high relative humidity. However, since 2015, there have been reports in the United States, Mexico and Ecuador of the presence of P. maydis in temperate to cold corn production areas. In this context, to determine the presence of pathogens associated with TSC in temperate climate areas, 48 corn fields in the department of Chimaltenango were evaluated during the second half of 2022.  In each field, the incidence and degree of infection were evaluated. In 13 locations of Chimaltenango, the presence of P. maydis stromas (shiny black spots scattered on the leaf) was detected, as well as the formation of “fish eyes”. The incidence ranged between 10 and 100 %, with a degree of infection between moderate and strong, according to the scale used. It was  confirmed that at least one of the pathogens associated with the TSC , P. maydis, is present  in the corn production areas of the central highlands of Guatemala.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3340

• John Fredy Hernandez Nopsa, Juliene Andrea Barreto Rojas, Manuel Alejandro Guzmán Hernández, Karen Viviana Osorio Guerrero, Luis Felipe Rincón Manrique, Julio Ramírez Durán

  The Rematriacion of native corn (Zea mays L.) for the Kamëntsá-biyá Indigenous people, in the department of Putumayo, Colombia

  The most important challenges that humanity faces today are biodiversity loss and erosion of  germplasm  resources,  both  highly  enhanced  by  climate  change,  climate  variability,  and  anthropogenic  causes.  These  phenomena  were  identified  in  local  production  seed  systems  (SLS)  and  local  agricultural  communities  such  as  the  native  indigenous  people  Kamëntsá-biyá  in  Putumayo,  Colombia,  particularly  in  corn.  The  intercultural  dialogue  allowed  AGROSAVIA  to  reach  different  agricultural  communities  and  develop  strategies  to strengthen SLS and improve food security and food sovereignty locally. To mitigate the loss of corn landraces, AGROSAVIA prepared a strategy called Seed Rematriation, a strategy developed jointly with the Kamëntsá-biyá community. To the Kamëntsá-biyá people, the strengthening of their agricultural system (called jajañ) begins with rescuing corn landraces that were lost. Human factors or climate variability are the most common causes of this disappearance.  Seed  Rematriation  reinforces  the  agricultural,  cultural,  and  food  bases  of  local  communities.  To  rescue  corn  seed,  we  use  accessions  stored  in  the  Colombian  Germplasm  Banks  for  Food  and  Agriculture  (BGAA).  We  identified  and  increased  ten  corn accessions collected in the Putumayo and stored more than three decades ago. We agreed with the Kamëntsá-biyá people to return this seed to their community. The seed increase  was  done  at  the  AGROSAVIA  research  center  La  Selva  (Rionegro,  Antioquia).  La  Selva has optimal agroclimatic conditions to increase corn seed from the Putumayo area. Seed  increase  was  done  using  a  plot  under  controlled  pollination  per  accession,  where  we  finally  obtained  quality  seeds  of  each  accession.  Simultaneously,  we  strengthened  the  Kamëntsá-biyá  Seed  Guardian  Network  so  that  they  could  increase,  produce,  and  store  corn  seeds  using  their  cultural  practices.  Rematriation  implies  the  conscious  and  respectful return of landraces or native seeds to their communities, with the recognition of their intrinsic value and the preservation of cultural practices associated with their seeds. Rematriation  is  based  on  respect  and  cultural  understanding  and  prioritizes  community participation  during  the  strengthening  of  their  agricultural  production  systems  through  interculturality.  Finally,  seed  rematriation  contributes  to  food  security,  food  sovereignty,  and food identity. It facilitates the conservation and rescue of agrobiodiversity using both in situ and ex situ strategies. Here, we describe the rematriation principles and depict their actions  to  articulate  rescue,  conservation,  restoration,  and  increase  processes  carried  out jointly between Kamëntsá-biyá and AGROSAVIA with the BGAA. Thus, we enrich the delivery of seed to communities and strengthen the capacities of the SLS.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3381

• Vicente Antonio Vera Bravo, Benny Avellan, Galo Alexander Cedeño García, Sofía del Rocío Velásquez Cedeño, Geoconda Aracely López Álava, José Luis Zambrano Mendoza

  Effectiveness of liquid fertilization and bio-stimulation on yield and profitability of maize (Zea mays L.) f or fresh consumption

  The  consumption  of  sweet  corn  is  very  important  in  some  coastal  areas  from  the  Equator . The goal of the study was to analyze the effectiveness of liquid fertilization and biostimulation on the yield and profitability of the INIAP 543 – QPM sweet corn (choclo). The work was carried out during two different rainy seasons in January-2021 and May-2022,  in  the  locations  of  El  Cady  in  Portoviejo,  Danzarín  in  Rocafuerte,  and  El  Limón  in Bolívar, located at coordinates 1°07’14.6”S - 80°24’39.7”W, 0°54’42.0”S - 80°24’17.4”W, and  0°49’49.1”S  -  80°10’48.6”W,  respectively.  The  evaluated  treatments  were  liquid  fertilization  +  bio-stimulation  (LF  +  BIO),  granular  fertilization  +  bio-stimulation  (GF  +  BIO),  granular  fertilization  (GF),  and  a  control  treatment  without  fertilization  or  bio-stimulation. A completely randomized block design was used, with four treatments and five replications. Corn ear yield (CEY ), agronomic nitrogen efficiency (ANE), and economic profitability were recorded. The treatments had a significant influence (p<0.05) on CEY and  ANE  in  both  planting  seasons  and  in  the  three  locations  evaluated.  The  LF  +  BIO  and FG + BIO treatments achieved higher CEY with averages of 9.00 and 8.43 t ha-1, with respect to the GF and control treatments with 7.76 and 3.26 t ha-1, respectively. Similarly, on average, ANE was higher in the LF + BIO and GF + BIO treatments with 38.26 and 34.47 kg of CEY kg-1 of N applied, in contrast to the FG treatment that achieved an average ANE of 30.01 of CEY kg-1 of N applied. On the other hand, LF + BIO achieved greater increases in CEY and ANE with respect to GF + BIO. Economic profitability averaged USD$0.78 and USD$0.73 per each dollar invested for the LF + BIO and GF + BIO treatments, respectively, in  comparison  to  the  profitability  of  the  GF  and  control  treatments,  which  achieved  a  profit  of  USD$0.66  and  USD$0.42  per  each  dollar  invested.  The  results  obtained  allow  us  to  conclude  that  under  rainfall  conditions,  surface  soil  moisture  depends  on  water precipitation and therefore does not guarantee a permanent field capacity in the soil. In such conditions, edaphic fertilization applied in a diluted manner can be more efficient and  convenient  than  granulated  fertilization  applied  in  a  superficial  band.  In  addition,  under  rainfall  conditions,  biostimulation  is  a  technology  that  contributes  to  boost  the  edaphic fertilization of sweet corn, and its implementation is economically viable.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3350

• Liliana Atencio Solano, Jos´é Tapia Coronado, W Barragán Hernández, Emiro Suárez Paternina, Abelsardo Tulio Diaz Cabadiaz , Iván Javier Pastrana Vargas

  Evaluation of some physical and physiological quality attributes of sweet corn (Zea mays sacharata) seeds under different storage conditions and harvesting season

  In Colombia, sweet corn (Zea mays saccharate) is of great importance for producers and consumers of fresh grain. Agrosavia has developed a new variety of sweet corn for small producers in the Caribbean region who can produce their own seed. The study aimed to evaluate the physiological quality of sweet corn seed under different storage, packaging and harvesting conditions. Two experiments, cold storage and environmental conditions, were established at the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory of AGROSAVIA, where the effect of packaging and harvest time on germination, viability, temperature and humidity of sweet corn seeds was evaluated. The seed germination and viability under cold storage conditions (10 °C and 60 RH) were higher (P<0.05) when stored in plastic packaging (81.9 %) compared to paper (76.3 %). For environmental temperature conditions (28 °C and 85 RH), the highest germination percentage (P<0.05) was presented in the plastic packaging from 60 to 120 days of storage in seed harvested at 90 days. According to this study, sweet corn seed can be harvested at physiological maturity (90 days) and packaged in plastic containers preserving the quality for up to 120 days. Paper bag treatment germination can be drastically reduced after 60 days of storage. 

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3295

• Ricardo Ernesto Preciado-Ortiz, María Gricelda Vázquez-Carrillo

  Challenges and opportunities of public and private maize breeding programs in Latin America, case Mexico

  Public founded maize breeding programs belonging to universities and research institutions in Latin America contrast to breeding programs private seed companies in several aspects such as: research founding availability, market perspective, breeding products developed, users of products, use of maize genetic divergence, breeding schemes, short medium and long term in research projects, between others. The objective of this paper is to analyzed and highlight the advantages and opportunities of universities and public research institutions by their highly specialized human resources, genetic resources of breeding germplasm, and facilities to implement medium and long term, sustainable, high impact, innovation and technological development projects, with an impact in alimentation, health, nutrition, agricultural development and food safety, and also to contribute to reduce negative effects of climate change. To be able to implement this interdisciplinary and interinstitutional projects is necessary the incidence and participation of several factors like: a) the willpower to interaction between highly specialized researchers from different disciplines belonging to different institutions, b) availability of involved institutions to allow the use of human and genetic resources and their facilities, availability of national and international research founds, c) create public politics to support innovation and technology generation research. To impact food safety, nutrition, health, social and agricultural development, since research have to be consider and inversion and a public good for Latin-American governments. As an example of medium term interdisciplinary and interinstitutional work it have been released high quality, specialty and value added maize hybrids such as High oil content, pigmented (blue and red) and pozolero type. Also, it has advances and sources of germplasm to implement research lines to obtain tolerant materials for mycotoxins (Aflatoxins and Fusarium), phosphorous use efficiency, along to other research lines to generate tolerant and efficient varieties for adverse biotic and abiotic factors produced by negative effects of climate change.  

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3383

• Luciana Ayelen Galizia, Fátima Nair Palifermo, María Elena Otegui

  Maize drought tolerance improvement in a public breeding program

  World maize production is mainly carried out in rainfed systems in which the main limitation to grain yield is usually water availability. In maize, the anthesis-silking interval (ASI, in days) is proved to be a useful secondary trait as it is highly correlated with improved grain yield in drought-prone environments, has high heritability and can be fast and accurately measured in the field. The objective of this work was to characterize and select a set of inbred lines for their tolerance to water stress. To achieve this, 240 inbred lines of the INTA Pergamino Temperate Maize Breeding Program were field grown during the 2019-20 season at high planting density (16 pl.m^-2) in a randomized complete block design with 2 replicates. A subset of 50 inbreds was sown in the same site during the dry 2020-21 growing season. Inbreds were characterized for ASI and defensive traits, such as root and stalk lodging. High stand density promoted the expression of significant genotypic differences in ASI (p < 0.05, mean: 2.3 d, range: -3 to +9 d), root (p < 0.05, mean: 26.5%, range: 0 to 100%) and stalk lodging (p < 0.05, mean: 5.3%, range: 0 to 80%). Heritabilities values were 63, 51 and 64 for ASI, root and stalk lodging, respectively. In 2020-21, the 50 inbreds with the lowest ASI values (mean = 0.52), and with less than 20% and 5% root and stalk lodging, respectively were evaluated again, finding significant differences between inbreds (for ASI: p<0.05, mean: 1.8, range: -3 to +6 days). Based on the data obtained in both years, a set of inbreds representative of the different heterotic groups of the breeding program was selected to make biparental crosses and develop new inbreds with shorter ASI, and therefore, with better performance under stressful conditions. For this, the inbreeding from the S0 generation and the evaluation of inbreds in hybrid combination will be carried out at high planting density (16 pl.m^-2). This selection method will allow the development of stress-tolerant germplasm.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3305

• Carlos Alberto Sangoquiza Caiza, José L. Zambrano-Mendoza, Cristian R. Subía-García, Victoria López-Guerrero, Marcelo Racines-Jaramillo, Ana Pincay-Verdezoto, Chang Hwan Park

  Effect of the plastic mulch planting system on the agronomic behavior and profitability of four varieties of corn in the Sierra del Ecuador

  In the Andean region of Ecuador, the predominant agricultural sector is largely managed by  small-scale  farmers  who  lack  access  to  modern  technologies.  Consequently,  their  crop yields remain low, rendering their production systems vulnerable to various factors such  as  drought,  cold  weather,  and  labor  shortages  caused  by  significant  migration.  Introducing  plastic  mulching  in  agriculture  offers  a  promising  solution  to  enhance  yields by optimizing water and nutrient utilization, accelerating harvests, and improving product  quality.  Moreover,  it  reduces  the  labor  burden,  which  is  increasingly  scarce  and costly in rural areas. This study aimed to assess the impact of plastic mulch on the agronomic  performance  and  profitability  of  four  different  open  pollinated  varieties  of  maize:  INIAP-101  (floury  white),  INIAP-122  (floury  yellow),  INIAP-193  (floury  black),  and  INIAP-199  (chulpi-sweet).  Four  independent  experiments  were  conducted  using  a  randomized block design with three replications at two locations within the region. Two treatments were compared: (T1) plastic mulching and (T2) conventional management (without  mulching).  The  results  revealed  significant  improvements  in  plant  height,  increasing from 1.55 to 2.01 m, and a remarkable 85 % boost in average maize yield under the  mulching  system,  rising  from  2.91  t  ha-1  to  4.95  t  ha-1  compared  to  conventional  management (T2). However, the benefit-to-cost ratio (B/C) was higher for the mulched system (2.55) compared to the conventional system (2.14). The unit production cost was also lower in the mulched system, averaging at 0.67 USD per kilogram, in contrast to the conventional  system’s  average  of  0.77  USD  per  kilogram.  These  findings  suggest  that  adopting plastic mulch for planting and cultivation could offer a sustainable means to intensify maize production in the Andean region while enhancing producers’ incomes.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3290

• Luis A. Narro León, Alexander Chávez Cabrera, Peter C. Piña Díaz, Fernando Escobal Valencia, Alicia E. Medina Hoyos, Teodoro P. Narro León, Roberto Alvarado Rodríguez, Kryss A. Vargas Gutiérrez, Fabian C. Velásquez Leveaú, Mercedes Escalante Vega, Gilberto A. García Pando, Pedro Carrillo Zavala, Raihil Rengifo Sánchez , Elizabeth Ricse Belen , Demetrio Flores Mendoza, Willian M. Huamanchay Rodriguez, Ronal Otiniano Villanueva

  Maize with high anthocyanin, biofortified with zinc, provitamin A, and quality protein in Peru

  “Hidden hunger” is a serious problem affecting over 2000 million people in developing countries. In Peru, it has increased from 17.7 to 19.6, between 2021 and 2022. This problem is caused by deficiencies in micronutrients and vitamins in humans. Crop biofortification for zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and provitamin A (ProA) has emerged as an initiative to help solve this problem using conventional breeding (no transgenics). Research in Peru shows the feasibility of promoting biofortified maize with high Zn, high ProA and also high grain yield potential. For purple maize, which contains anthocyanins, a chemical with beneficial effects for humans, studies on varietal adaptation and anthocyanins content are being conducted in Peru. Preliminary results show clear differences among varieties for grain yield potential and high anthocyanin content in the cob, husk, and grain. Purple maize production has increased fourfold in the last twenty years due to increased local consumption and exports. However, its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is minimal, less than 1 %. Consequently, this presents a big challenge and an opportunity for research and technology development to increase maize production and link purple maize producers with global consumers. For quality protein maize, available hybrids with high grain yield potential and wide adaptation must be promoted in Peru.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v16i2.3277