In Maoli village, typical farms are around 0.7 ha and set in mountainous countryside where access is difficult. Until recently, annual incomes were below US$ 50 per capita. Worse, for up to three months every year, families had virtually no food. Approximately 30 ethnic groups live in the region, and by any standards these people have been among the worlds poorest people.

As part of a government hunger alleviation program, QPM hybrids were introduced into Guizhou beginning in 1994. QPM is higher in two essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophane, that are vital to the growth of children and non-ruminant livestock. For example, 175g of QPM meets the daily protein needs of a child equivalent to 250g of normal maize.

The QPM varieties used in Guizhou were developed through a long-standing partnership between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and CIMMYT. Li Jing Xiong was the pioneer in China, and Surinder Vasal and Evangelina Villegas were the pioneers in CIMMYT.

The original QPM varieties came to China in 1976 from CIMMYT, which began QPM research in the 1970s. Given the more temperate nature of many of Chinas maize-growing provinces, advanced research had to be carried out by CAAS scientists to adapt the QPM materials to local conditions.

The products of this research used in farmers fields today are hybrids that generally have one CIMMYT parent line and one Chinese parent line. All of the Chinese scientists involved in the research have visited CIMMYT and received training there. One of the younger breeders, who has a successful hybrid, was sponsored in his M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños by CIMMYT.

The technology is delivered to farmers by the Provisional Science and Technology Commission and the Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Their enthusiasm and willingness to work in difficult conditions have fueled the farm revolution. They work well with the farmers in education and technology development, and there is obvious rapport between them and the communities. Luo Li and his team exude infectious enthusiasm as they work in the field.

QPM is now grown on 15 ha in Maoli. This area has increased rapidly from year to year as more seed has become available. QPM hybrids yield around 10 percent higher than other hybrids, in addition to providing grain with enhanced nutritional quality. While some of this grain is consumed directly by farm families, its primary use has been to improve pig production.

New animal production enterprises have both enhanced household food security and increased disposable incomes for all of the families concerned. By selling 30 pigs over the past three years, one farmer was able to build a new house, educate his children, and introduce resource-conserving technologies on his farm. Pig manure is being used in a simple methane digester to provide power for the home. Other farmers have invested in water-harvesting schemes for supplemental irrigation of crops.

Life in Maoli has been transformed through the introduction of QPM. One elderly woman farmer explained, We have always worked hard, but this barely kept us alive until QPM arrived. Thank you for helping us. Now my family is happy, I have a good house, good clothes, and I can travel to the local town. She was 78 years old and had clearly endured much hardship.

In addition to the families in Maoli, over 20,000 families in Guizhou Province have experienced similar impacts. We also visited Jiubao Village in Hebei Province, north of Beijing, where QPM is already making a sizeable impact.

Reproducing these results in other provinces will require further work: developing efficient and effective QPM seed production systems; training more scientists; educating farmers; and evaluating impacts. But the start made in Guizhou couldnt be more encouraging.

My day in Maoli Village was one of the great privileges of working for CIMMYT; I will remember it for all of my life. The skeptics may say, But you have no baseline data. How can you measure the real impacts? To them, I would say go and listen. Once you have seen and spoken with the farmers involved, your belief in research for development will be further strengthened. Seeing is believing.