By Jacob D.H. Mignouna
For many smallholder farmers in Africa, maize is life. Since its introduction onto the continent several centuries ago, maize has become a staple crop in many parts of Africa.
Today, more than 300 million Africans depend on it as their main food source providing carbohydrates, protein, iron, vitamin D and minerals. And it is also a crucial source of additional income to support farmers and their families as well.
Yet the impacts of climate change are threatening maize yields and millions of farmers across Africa.
Three-quarters of the world’s most severe droughts over the last 10 years have occurred in Africa, destroying millions of hectares across the continent while also pushing families into hunger and poverty. The most recent and severe of such droughts has blighted stretches of land from northern Kenya through central Somalia and into eastern Ethiopia.
Public-private partnerships provide a useful approach for addressing the complexities of sustainable agricultural development and the global food security challenge, especially in less developed areas.
In Africa, such partnerships are being developed by governments, private companies, donors and development institutions to conduct advanced crop research, develop new technologies and deploy existing tools and knowledge to small-scale farmers.
In response to a growing call by African farmers, leaders, and scientists, a new public-private partnership called Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), was formed in 2008 to help address the effects of drought in a way that is cost effective for African smallholder farmers.
BREEDING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
Over five years, it aims to help smallholder farmers and their families by using advanced plant breeding and biotechnology to develop more drought tolerant maize varieties.
Drought tolerance has been recognized as one of the most important targets of crop improvement programs. Identifying ways to mitigate drought risk, stabilize yields and encourage small-scale farmers to adopt best management practices is fundamental to realizing food security and improved livelihoods for the continent.
Coordinated by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, WEMA works with private agricultural companies such as Monsanto and BASF to access proprietary germplasm, advanced breeding tools and expertise, and drought-tolerant transgenes for use in its research.
CIMMYT, the internationally funded non-profit International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, is providing high-yielding maize varieties that are adapted to African conditions as well as its expertise in conventional breeding and testing for drought tolerance.
National agricultural research systems in the five WEMA participating countries, namely Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, and Uganda, contribute their expertise in breeding, field testing, seed multiplication and distribution.
The varieties developed through the project will be distributed to African seed companies through AATF without royalty and made available to smallholder farmers.
Since WEMA began in 2008 there have been excellent gains in drought tolerance, utilizing traditional breeding methods, in each of the five participating countries.
Alois Kullaya, WEMA country coordinator in Tanzania, says, “Our participation in this project especially the development of confined field trial sites… (has) additional benefits for our country, which include building our capacity to improve other important crops.”
Over the past two years significant progress has been made as a team of more than 60 scientists from across the partner organizations have worked together to develop maize hybrids, testing them in field trials across various maize growing environments, and building the necessary regulatory procedures and protocols for the proper evaluation of the maize in this project in each of the five countries.
TESTING UNDERWAY
Testing is already underway to screen for drought-tolerance performance under both optimum watering and managed drought stress, under leaf disease pressure as well as under both optimum and low soil nitrogen conditions – all conditions commonly faced by many African farmers.
Other work is focusing on the development of hybrid maize varieties that can achieve high yields when there is too much water.
“We are eager to move forward and start to use some of the products, especially conventional drought-tolerant maize lines, to develop an array of varieties in the country,” said Godfrey Asea, a maize breeder and the WEMA-Uganda country coordinator.
The project’s first phase is expected to last five years. The first conventional hybrids (developed through conventional breeding, accelerated doubled haploid technology and marker-assisted breeding) could be available in three or four years time.
For the transgenic drought-tolerant maize hybrids being developed, farmer access will depend on research and development results and regulatory approval, but farmers could have access to the maize in seven to eight years.
It is estimated that the maize varieties developed over the next decade could increase yields as much as 20 to 35 percent under moderate drought conditions compared to the hybrids available in 2008. This would equate to an extra two million additional tonnes of food during times of drought for participating countries. That could benefit between 14 to 21 million people with more food and crops for market, helping to improve livelihoods while at the same time adapting to climate change.
Jacob D.H. Mignouna is director of technical operations at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).
- AlertNet
No comments:
Post a Comment