Abstract
In many African countries, such as Madagascar, a large part of the population is currently estimated to be undernourished, and self-subsistence agriculture represents the primary source of food available for the family. Smallholder farmers cultivate crops with limited agricultural input and use old landraces or obsolete hybrid varieties, with a total country-wide production that is far from being able to sustain the national food demand. In this study, we have developed two maize composite cross populations (CCPs) of different kernel colors, through a selection process among 30 half-sib lines, chosen both for their agronomic performance and their environmental adaptability to a Malagasy farm context. The best half-sib lines, identified through field tests, were clustered as a parental group for open-pollinated crosses. The new CCP created, after two years of seed multiplication in an open field, showed promising yields compared with the hybrids, parental varieties, and local landraces, with average values of 2.7 t/ha for the white CCP and 3.5 t/ha for the yellow one. The seeds produced were then distributed among 15 local farmers to begin a participatory breeding program. Our approach represents an innovative step to improve and stabilize maize yields, employing populations adapted to the cultivation environment and able to cope with different stresses, thereby helping farmers’ life conditions.
Highlights
Maize (Zea mays) represents the major staple food source in several tropical areas, providing carbohydrates, and several nutritional compounds [1,2]
From the 30 inbred lines originally used as maternal lines for the half-sib progeny production (AS 2013–2014), 5 lines produced less than 1 kg of seed (10 plants production) (Table 1) and were removed from the field evaluation of the half-sib progeny of the following year
The ear length and diameter (Table 2) varied according to soil conditions and between the different half-sib lines, underlining how these parameters were significantly influenced by both cultivation condition (F = 47.8; p < 0.001 and F = 48.95; p < 0.001)
Summary
Maize (Zea mays) represents the major staple food source in several tropical areas, providing carbohydrates, and several nutritional compounds (e.g., inulin, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, tocotrienols, and tocopherols) [1,2]. In sub-Saharan Africa, the rise in maize cultivated areas was followed by only a 2.4% increase in grain production caused by the high year-to-year variability in grain yields due to a low input agronomic system and climate change [4]. In many of these regions, such as Madagascar, smallholder farmers primarily perform subsistence low input agriculture with a management system largely relying on few agronomic practices and the use of low productive landraces or outdated hybrids, thereby limiting their ability to produce food and nutritional security [5]. Subsistence agriculture is the first source of food availability [7] for Malagasy
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