Vol. 1 No. 2 Sept. 2012
Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa
A Quarterly Bulletin of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project About the Bulletin DT Maize is a quarterly publication of the DTMA (Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa) project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its aim is to inform partners and the general public at large about developments related to drought tolerant maize in SubSaharan Africa. It publishes short, general articles, relevant news, and events related to DTMA. Articles and news on all aspects of maize in Africa from sister projects and other partners are also welcome. Any feedback from our readers would be appreciated.
New drought tolerant maize varieties released under DTMA in target countries (as at July 2012)
New Maize Varieties for Africa
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aize, followed by sorghum, millet, cassava, groundnut, and cowpea, among others, is the most important food crop for smallholder farmers in SubSaharan Africa (SSA), comprising about 480 million agricultural populations. About 77% of the maize grain is used as food in SSA outside of South Africa. Maize provides 22% to 25% of the starch consumed in Africa since the 1980s. The consumption of maize in Southern Africa has been estimated at 85 kg/capita/year as compared to 27 kg/capita/year in East Africa and 25 kg/capita/year in West and Central Africa. The current yield of maize in SSA (about 1800 kg/ha) is low, compared to its genetic potential. Abiotic (drought, degraded soil) and biotic (e.g. diseases, insects, weeds) factors are the major contributors to this low yield. It has been estimated that some 40% of the maize area in SSA experiences
occasional drought stress, with yield losses of 10-25% and 25% experiences frequent drought, with yield losses of 25-50%. It is not uncommon to see total maize crop failure during severe drought seasons in many parts of SSA.
Table 1: Drought tolerant maize varieties released by DTMA (as at July 2012) Country
Type OPVs
Hybrids
Total
Benin
6
0
6
Ghana
3
2
5
The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project was launched in 2006 to mitigate drought and other constraints to maize production in SSA. The project has made significant progress in developing and distributing drought tolerant varieties and other technologies to boost maize yield among smallholder farmers here.
Mali
2
1
3
Nigeria
12
6
18
Sub-total
23
9
32
Ethiopia
2
2
4
Kenya
8
0
8
Tanzania
2
10
12
Uganda
0
3
3
Sub-total
12
15
27
DTMA aims to develop and release more than 220 varieties by 2016. So far, 105 drought tolerant varieties have been released and disseminated to smallholder farmers across target countries. Among these, 57 were open pollinated varieties (OPVs) and 48 were hybrids (Table 1). Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Malawi
Angola
5
2
7
Malawi
3
5
8
Mozambique
4
3
7
Zambia
7
7
14
Zimbabwe
3
7
10
Sub-total
22
24
46
Grand total
57
48
105
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released more hybrids than OPVs whereas the reverse was true for Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Ghana, and Mali. All varieties in Uganda were hybrids and all varieties released in Kenya and Benin were OPVs. More emphasis will be placed on drought tolerant hybrid maize production in the coming years. All current hybrids in Eastern and Southern Africa are 3-way crosses; six of the hybrids in West Africa were 3-way crosses while three were top crosses. Seventeen of these new varieties are in full production across DTMA target countries in West Africa, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa regions while production of 34 varieties is increasing; 21 varieties were new in 2011 while production of nine varieties was yet to start (Table 2). Table 2: Production status of drought tolerant maize varieties released under DTMA (as at July 2012) Country
Production status Full Increasing
First year
Minimal
Yet to start
Benin
1
4
1
0
0
Ghana
2
3
0
0
0
Mali
0
1
1
0
1
Nigeria
2
5
3
4
4
Sub-total
5
13
5
4
5
Ethiopia
0
1
2
0
1
Kenya
2
6
0
0
0
Tanzania
1
0
4
4
3
Uganda
1
0
2
0
0
Sub-total
4
7
8
4
4
Angola
0
1
2
4
0
Malawi
5
2
1
0
0
Mozambique
0
2
3
2
0
Zambia
3
3
2
6
0
Zimbabwe
0
6
0
4
0
Sub-total
8
14
8
16
0
17
34
21
24
9
Grand total
These improved varieties give 20-30% more yield than other varieties previously available to smallholder farmers. In addition to drought tolerance, the new varieties also possess desirable traits such as resistance to major diseases (such as maize streak virus, Turcicum leaf spot, and gray leaf spot) and superior milling or cooking quality. Many have special traits such as quality protein (high levels of amino acid), tillering, early maturity, good green cob taste, and wide adaption. Examples are summarized in Table 3 below. Table 3: Examples of drought tolerant maize varieties with additional special traits Release name
Countries released
Special traits
CSIR-Abontem
Ghana
Quality protein
CSIRAburohemaa
Ghana
Quality protein
CSIR-Omankwa
Ghana
Quality protein
Sammaz 32
Nigeria
Quality protein
Sammaz 38
Nigeria
Quality protein
Sammaz 18
Nigeria
Tillering
Sammaz 34
Nigeria
Multi-cob; early maturity
ZM309
Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Early maturity; good green cob taste; wide adaptation
ZM423
Angola, Zambia
Wide adaptation
ZM523
Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe
Wide adaptation
ZM623
Angola, Tanzania, Zimbabwe
Wide adaptation
Tsedeke Abate, Abebe Menkir, and John F. MacRobert
NEWS AND EVENTS Seed Systems Specialists’ Meeting for Eastern and Southern Africa Held The production of seed of DT maize varieties and dissemination to smallholder farmers is key to the success of DTMA, and has become increasingly important in several CIMMYT projects in Africa. In recognition of this, an African Maize Seed Systems Coordination Meeting was held in Nairobi on 3rd and 4th July 2012, at which Senior Management, Seed Systems Specialists, Breeders and Socio-economists reviewed the seed delivery commitments of the major African maize projects, and discussed issues regarding, inter alia, coordination of seed-related activities, opportunities for synergy amongst projects and programs, seed production research, promotion of CIMMYT varieties
and quality assurance. CIMMYT recently appointed two new Seed Systems Specialists: James Gethi and Regasa Mosisa, both of whom have distinguished careers in maize breeding and seed systems with respective national maize programs in Kenya and Ethiopia. This brings to five the number of Seed Systems Specialists in east and southern Africa, and exhibits CIMMYT’s commitment to enhancing the seed sector for the benefit of small-holder farmers. The synergy that may be exploited amongst CIMMYT projects covers such activities as product testing and evaluation, product promotion, capacity building and partner interaction.
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The new products being generated by the various breeding projects need to meet farmer expectations and needs, and improved seed delivery systems will play an important role, along with socio-economic studies and support, genetic quality assurance, and conservation agriculture. Along with internal coordination of activities, close liaison and cooperation with other external seed-related projects, such as AGRA-PASS, the Harmonised Seed Security Project in Southern Africa, and Seed Trade Associations is crucial to achieving wide impact.
southern African countries, who included scientists from the national agricultural research organizations, seed companies, and NGOs. The meeting was opened by Ngoni Masoka, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development of the Government of Zimbabwe, who acknowledged and commended CIMMYT for its long and sustained support of maize research in southern Africa, and Zimbabwe in particular. Participants discussed some of their notable achievements from 2011-12, of which some are highlighted here: Angola began its first commercial-scale seed production of a drought tolerant hybrid with Agropequária Kambondo and produced significant quantities of the drought tolerant OPV ZM523; farmers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo produced 80 tons of the drought tolerant OPV ZM623 through communitybased seed schemes; Lesotho released a quality protein maize variety; Zambia’s national program made significant progress in breeding for drought tolerance; and Local emerging seed companies in Mozambique have begun production of one drought tolerant OPV and three drought tolerant hybrids.
The meeting also reviewed seed production research priorities, since producibility of hybrids plays a significant role in achieving production goals and moderating seed prices. It was noted that in recent years, a trial of parents (singlecrosses and inbred lines) has been conducted annually in Zimbabwe at a few locations, and data from these trials used to provide seed-sector partners with production advice. In 2012, this trial was extended to Kiboko, Kenya. This trial included 30 single cross females and 148 inbred lines, all of which are represented in elite hybrids in the Regional Trials. Apart from these seed parent characterization trials, further studies are required on agronomic management of seed fields, post-harvest pest resistance and the economics of seed production. John F. MacRoboert
The annual meeting also provided an opportunity to announce the DTMA annual awards to national programmes that have excelled in breeding and seed dissemination in 2011/12 in southern Africa. Zimbawbe was awarded Best Drought Tolerance Breeding Team for maintaining an excellent track record in developing and releasing improved drought tolerant varieties. The Runner-up Breeding Team Award went to Angola for the significant invigoration and improvement of breeding efforts at Huambo. The Best Drought Tolerance Dissemination Team Award went to Malawi for the great increase in drought tolerant OPV seed production and uptake amongst small-holder farmers, and the Runner-up Award in this category was presented to Mozambique for notable efforts and new initiatives in promotion and production of drought tolerant varieties. John F. MacRobert
Data Management Workshops for Breeders Held Data Management Workshops were held on 5-6 July and 17-18 July 2012, at Harare and Nairobi, respectively, for CIMMYT Breeders, Senior Technicians and Post-Graduate Students. The workshops were facilitated by Gary Atlin, Claudio Ayala and Juan Burgueno. The objectives of the workshop were to present recent improvements and additions to the IMIS-Fieldbook software, and discuss needs to further improve the usability of the software by maize breeders and technicians. It was noted that the new version was more stable and includes many new useful and userfriendly features. The participants commended the software development team on the hard work that had been done to improve the software. Suggestions were made on how to further improve the software. During the workshop, participants were introduced to ASREML3 software for spatial data analysis of yield trials. Final discussions during the workshop revolved around refining and improving the maize breeding testing pipeline where the main outcome was integrating variety testing between the Kenya and Zimbabwe breeding teams. Cosmos Magorokosho and Dan Makumbi
Training Course on Conduct and Management of Field Trials and Seed Production in West Africa A one-week training course on conduct and management of field trials and seed production of open-pollinated and hybrid varieties was held on 27-31 August 2012 at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria under the sponsorship of the DTMA project. The training course which was designed to upgrade the skills of maize technicians, seed specialists of public institutions and production managers of seed companies was drawn from the DTMA partner countries in Nigeria and Ghana. A total of 33 participants from Ghana (9) and Nigeria (24), including
NSIMA Annual Collaborators’ Meeting Held The New Seed Initiative for Maize in Southern Africa (NSIMA) project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) supports maize variety development, release, production and promotion in five non-DTMA countries and facilitates coordination and spill-over beneficiation amongst CIMMYT projects in southern Africa. To this end, an Annual Collaborators’ Meeting was held in Harare from 8-10 August, 2012, at which partner institutions and CIMMYT scientists presented results of their research, seed production and variety promotion activities. The meeting was attended by stakeholders from national maize working groups of 10
Participants at the 2012 DTMA Training Course on Conduct, Management of Field Trials and Seed Production, 27 – 31 August 2012, IITA-Ibadan, Nigeria
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seven women participated in the course. This was a practicaloriented course but was backed up with theory to improve the trainees’ understanding of maize variety testing and seed production. Course presentations were in the form of lectures, demonstrations, practical sessions and assignments. At least 60% of the course time was devoted to hands-on experience. Resource persons for the course included Drs
Baffour Badu-Apraku, Abebe Menkir, Tahiru Abdoulaye of IITA; Drs Peter Setimela and Dr MacRobert of CIMMYT; Pro.f M.A. B. Fakorede of OAU and Prof. J.E. Onyibe of IAR, Nigeria. During the course, forty copies of a new publication by the IITA maize scientists on the Conduct and Management of Maize Field Trials was distributed to the participants. Baffour Badu-Apraku
Major Field Visits by DTMA Staff Places visited Scientists involved Zimbabwe (Harare, Save T. Abate, J. Cairns, Valley, Chisumbanje, Chiredzi) C. Magorokosho, P. Setimela Zambia (Lusaka, Golden T. Abate, P. Setimela Valley Agricultural Research Trust) Malawi (Lilongwe, Chitedze) T. Abate, P. Setimela
Date 15-18 July
Major tasks Consultations with researchers, government officials and Seed Co
19-21 July
Ghana (Kpeve, Ho, Tamale, Upper East, Kumasi, Accra) Nigeria (Ibadan, Ikeni, Kubwa, Kaduna)
2-8 August
National Coordination Unit annual meeting; consultations with researchers, NGOs, Seed Co and government officials Consultations with researchers, NGOs, seed companies, government officials Visit field experiments; consultations with researchers, seed producers, government officials Visit field experiments; consultations with researchers and officials; visits with seed producers
T. Abate, B. Badu-Apraku
22-24 July
T. Abate, T. Abdulaye, 9-14 August B. Badu-Apraku, M. Gedil, A. Menkir, B. M. Prasanna
DTMA III Holds Annual Meeting The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project held its first annual meeting of Phase 3 on 24-28 September 2012 at the Nairobi Safari Club Hotel in Kenya. The meeting also included a one-day field visit to a seed company production fields in the Nakuru area. In attendance were 83 participants representing the national programs of partner countries (Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe); Advisory Board members of the project; and seed companies. Progress made during the first year (2011/12 season) was reviewed and discussed at this meeting. Major highlights of the meeting included, among others: •
•
•
Varieties developed by DTMA are not only for droughtprone areas but do equally well or exceed commercial varieties in their performance under optimum conditions as well; In southern Africa, on-farm DT hybrids produced 20 to 30 % more yield than the common check variety, while in West Africa, on-farm DT OPVs out-yielded farmer varieties by as much as 40 %; There is a surge in new DT varieties, particularly hybrids, being registered and coming into production in all DTMA countries; uptake of DT lines by companies who hold important market share (e.g. Seed Co and Kenya Seed Company) is increasing;
•
Total production of DT varieties in the 13 countries reached more than 25,000 MT in 2012, with the greatest production in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi;
•
A number of training courses were held in West, Eastern and Southern Africa with seed companies developing their production skills and;
•
Seed policy workshops have created conditions suitable to address promising options for maize seed sector development by national governments. Tsedeke Abate, Abebe Menkir, Baffour Badu-Apraku, John F. MacRobert, Olaf Erenstein and Tahirou Abdoulaye
Upcoming Workshops 2012
A DTMA/WEMA/IMAS Maize Breeders Update Course is scheduled for 01-04 October 2012, in Nairobi, Kenya. A total of 30 participants representing all DTMA countries, and Lesotho are registered to attend. All are senior researchers with long time experience in maize breeding. Three of those are women.
Contact: Tsedeke Abate, email:
[email protected]; tel: +254 20 722 4640; mobile: +254 719 802 743 Florence Sipalla, email:
[email protected]; CIMMYT-Nairobi, ICRAF House, UN Avenue, Gigiri PO Box 1041-00621, Nairobi, Kenya; website: http://dtma.cimmyt.org
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