Future Outlook and Challenges of Maize Improvement

Abstract

Maize is one of the most important staple crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Its role in the nutrition and food security of the peoples of West and Central Africa (WCA) has increased tremendously during the last four decades. Consequently, research to improve the yield potential has been high in the agricultural agenda in the sub-region, initially on an individual country basis. However, most of the constraints to maize production were too formidable for individual countries to overcome. Because the constraints were crosscutting, there was an opportunity to pool the available resources to tackle the constraints and minimize duplication of efforts. Unfortunately, the different national governments of the sub-region did not really come together as an entity to address this and other agricultural research problems. The establishment of IITA in Nigeria in 1967 provided an avenue and a unique opportunity for establishing such an entity. The Institute’s research efforts were initially limited to Ibadan and environs from where it gradually fanned out to other parts of Nigeria, moved on to other WCA countries and now to much of Africa south of the Sahara desert. Mandatorily, IITA must work in collaboration with NARS thus making it possible for the Institute, within a short time of its existence, to identify the research strengths and weaknesses of the WCA countries in particular. As had been known to the NARS researchers, IITA soon discovered that the savanna agroecology, particularly the Northern Guinea savanna, had the greatest potential for maize production in WCA. IITA’s scientists started maize research in the Nigeria savanna zones in 1980 and clearly targeted maize varieties of different maturities to the agroecology. Intermediate-to-late maturing varieties were available for the lowland savannas, but much of the savannas needed early and extra-early varieties, while the mid-altitude agroecology needed specific varieties all of which, unfortunately, were not available. Therefore, breeding efforts were initiated along these lines, and it became necessary to cover the whole of WCA. In 1977, foreign ministers of WCA met to discuss and proffer solution to the problem of recurrent drought which was plaguing the sub-region. One of the outcomes of the meeting was the establishment of the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (SAFGRAD) project comprising several commodity networks, including maize. Research on early and extra-early maize was devolved on the maize network of SAFGRAD, and in 1987, the maize network became autonomous and was named West and Central Africa Collaborative Maize Research Network (WECAMAN). The Network served as an effective mechanism for all stakeholders in maize production and productivity to tackle the regional constraints from 1987 to 2007. These included national and international scientists, extension workers, farmers, seed technologists, industrialists, and policymakers.