Economic, Cultural and Taste-based Constraints to the Scaling of Climate-resilient Biofortified Maize among Diverse Smallholder Populations in Guatemala

To address the combined challenges of hidden hunger and climate vulnerability, crop breeding efforts over the last decades have focused on releasing crop varieties with resilient traits and higher nutrient content. Ensuring that those newly released varieties reach the types of farmers most likely to benefit from these enhanced seed traits ultimately will determine the return to those breeding efforts. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of selected demand- and supply-side interventions that aimed to increase the reach of biofortified maize seeds among diverse smallholder populations in Guatemala. We introduce experimental variation in demand-side subsidies and information designed to encourage farmers to try the biofortified climate-resilient seeds, and supply-side subsidies for agrodealers to promote the seeds to a wider customer base. Subsidizing agrodealers can leverage market incentives, while demand-side interventions, more traditional policy tools, can allow more precise targeting. We study the effect of these scaling approaches on short-term uptake, longer-term willingness to pay, and sustained adoption by different types of farmers.