With the introduction of hybrids under intensive
cropping systems, the local populations and the
traditional uses of maize have been abandoned. The
reintroduction of improved traditional varieties suitable
for organic agriculture and for manufacturing
products for human consumption and organic agriculture
would fit the social demands for higher quality
and safe foods. The objectives of this work were to
evaluate under organic and conventional agriculture
several maize varieties improved for grain yield or
quality along with other open-pollinated populations
of maize grown in the past by farmers under traditional
agriculture to find out if selection for grain yield and
flour yield under conventional agriculture was useful
also for organic agriculture, and to investigate the
220 Euphytica (2015) 205:219–230
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relationship between agronomic and quality traits
under both cropping systems.