In this article, Da Silva and Murdolelono assess the feasibility of new maize cultivation technology in enhancing maize productivity, farmer income and food security among farming households in East Nusa Tenggara. The authors use data gathered through an experiment with 30 farmers in South Timor Tengah district during the 2007/08 rainy season. The new technologies were the open-pollenated maize variety Srikandi and recommendations on fertilizers and plant spacing. The results demonstrate that the applied maize technology increased productivity to 3.4 t ha-1 compared to 1.7 t ha-1 using existing farmer practices. Farmer's income was also found to have increased significantly, from Rp 2.4 million to Rp 4.8 million. Farmers responded positively to the Srikandi maize because it gave them higher productivity and enabled an earlier harvest (by 20 days) than their local variety. The authors thus conclude that the new maize technology is worth disseminating on a wider scale in East Nusa Tenggara.

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