Data collected through a survey of 252 rural households support the conventional wisdom that maize in Paraguay is grown by many different categories of producers, ranging from small-scale semisubsistence farmers to large-scale commercial growers. Semisubsistence farmers plant primarily local varieties, while commercial growers plant almost exclusively improved varieties and hybrids (the latter often imported from Argentina and Brazil). Nearly 50% of the country's total maize area is planted to improved materials, far more than had previously been believed. Use of purchased inputs remains low among all categories of producers, suggesting that recent dramatic increases in maize production have been made possible by exploiting the natural fertility of newly cleared forest land. Future research efforts will have to strike a balance between the specialized needs of different producer groups.vi, 43 pages