maize Archives - IITA News

Researchers give decision-makers tools for better SAI interventions

Africa is a major producer of several kinds of cereals like sorghum, millet, wheat, maize, and rice, yet there is a wide gap between actual and potential yields for these cereals. Total production is not keeping up with the increase in population, leading to intensifying production with more commercial inputs. However, the environmental concerns from…

GIZ–GIAE and IITA target job creation and increased maize and cassava productivity in Nigeria

The Green Innovation Centre for the Agriculture and Food Sector Program (GIAE) – Nigeria is launching an 18-month project to boost maize and cassava production and create jobs for youth and women in the value chains. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) implements GIAE on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation…

Food security in maize production: Managing its implications and sustainability

Maize (Zea mays) is a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production surpassing wheat or rice. Maize is usually consumed green but can also be eaten as masa, a maize dough from ground corn, soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution to remove aflatoxin, which Latin Americans consume. The crop is also used as the main ingredient to produce corn…

Crop innovation: Mitigating the impact of the climate crisis in Africa

Adopting drought-tolerant (DT) maize varieties has helped lift millions of people above Africa’s poverty line. In his recently launched book, How to avoid a climate disaster: The solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need, Bill Gates mentioned this innovation, singling out CGIAR as being “at the forefront of supporting the world to feed itself…

How crop innovation is addressing the impact of the climate crisis in Africa

In a just-published op-ed, Martin Kropff, Director General, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Nteranya Sanginga, Director General, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), talk about CGIAR centers’ investment on long-term breeding to increase genetic gains in an important food crop like maize using many new tools and technologies. In the op-ed, Kropff…

Recent advances in breeding for Striga resistance in early and extra-early maturing maize for sub-Saharan Africa

A team of IITA scientists, molecular breeders, and geneticists, coordinated by the IITA early and extra-early Maize Program Lead, Baffour Badu-Apraku, recently made significant advances in the longstanding efforts of the IITA Maize Improvement Program (MIP) to develop genotypes with durable resistance to Striga parasitism using molecular markers. The major advances are: Identification of genomic regions significantly associated with indicator traits for Striga resistance under infestation in early maturing…

PIDMA delivers technologies to farmers’ organizations for sustainable cassava and maize production in Cameroon

The IITA Cassava and Maize Breeding Units in Nigeria have developed multiple cassava and maize genotypes with improved yields, starch content, resistance/tolerance to major pests and diseases, and other characteristics that will satisfy industry requirements, such as improved nutritional content (e.g., higher provitamin A content). The deployment of these newly developed varieties into Cameroon required…

Maize project supports partners in COVID-19 response

As the world continues the fight to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, food production, employment, income and welfare of people in Africa, as well as in other parts of the world, need to be given extra attention. More than 70% of the rural population in West and Central Africa depend on subsistence farming, and this is…

IITA-BIP sets record for maize production per hectare in Nigeria

The Business Incubation Platform (BIP) of IITA has set a new production record for maize in Nigeria. BIP exceeded the previous record through its Youth Out-growers team in an outgrowers program with Nestlé, Nigeria. Maize is one of Africa’s dominant food crops, rich in vitamins A, C, and E, carbohydrates, and essential minerals as well…

Scientists discover best practice for minimizing aflatoxin contamination of maize

Scientists recommend best practice for minimizing aflatoxin contamination of maize

R4D Special IITA researchers, working with scientists from other agricultural institutions, have come up with a pre-harvest practice for minimizing aflatoxin contamination of maize. The practice was developed and outlined in a study in Kenya, which was carried out to document the rate at which aflatoxin contaminates physiologically mature maize in the field. Aflatoxins are…