ORIGINAL PAPER Genetically modified maize impacts in Honduras: production and social issues Diego Maximiliano Macall . Carlos Rogelio Trabanino . Alejandro Herna ´ndez Soto . Stuart J. Smyth Received: 20 June 2020 / Accepted: 27 October 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 Abstract Maize production is one of the most important activities for the Honduran economy, both in terms of area cultivated and food security provided. This article reports the results of a survey undertaken to gauge knowledge, perceptions, opinions, and atti- tudes of Honduran farmers towards genetically mod- ified (GM) maize. Data were collected from 32 maize producers in 2018–19, of both conventional and GM, in five different departments (regions) of Honduras. Results show that over 75% of interviewed farmers have significant knowledge of basic biotechnology concepts and GM maize. Overall, producers have a positive opinion about GM maize because yields are higher than conventional maize, and adopting farmers have higher incomes. A significant finding was the reduction in the number of necessary pesticide appli- cations, 84% of interviewees who used GM maize did not apply any pesticides. Farmers indicate the two main reasons for using GM maize are higher incomes (48%) and ease of use of the crop (33%). Overall, GM maize impacts in Honduras could be greater if the federal government took on a more proactive role in knowledge dissemination and facilitation of credit access. Keywords Adoption benefits Á Chemical use Á Economic impacts Á Farm-level evidence Á Yield increases Introduction In 2002, Honduras became the first Latin American country to authorize the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize. Production of maize is an important activity for the Honduran economy (Hintze 2003); it is also responsible for providing 26% of the calories consumed by urban dwelling Hondurans, and 48% of the calories con- sumed by those residing in rural areas (Cruz 2013). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-020-00221-y) con- tains supplementary material, which is available to authorised users. D. M. Macall (&) Á S. J. Smyth Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada e-mail: diego.macall@usask.ca S. J. Smyth e-mail: stuart.smyth@usask.ca C. R. Trabanino Panamerican Agricultural School (Zamorano University), Zamorano, Honduras e-mail: rtrabanino@zamorano.edu A. H. Soto Instituto Tecnolo ´gico de Costa Rica (ITCR), Cartago, Costa Rica e-mail: alhernandez@itcr.ac.cr 123 Transgenic Res https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-020-00221-y