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A vital research program that has already had significant impact on the
lives of African farmers will accelerate its work for their benefit, thanks
to new funding from one of the world?s most important philanthropic
organizations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, January 2007.

The research also marks the forging of a strong, new partnership between
the developing world?s premier research organizations dedicated to improving
the livelihoods of farm families who rely on maize?the International Maize
and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

The two centers will team with research partners in eleven of Africa?s most
maize-dependent and drought-affected countries.

More than a quarter of a billion Africans depend on maize as their staple
food, often eating a quarter kilo or more of maize and maize products every
day. Any disruption in the supply of maize, either at the farm level or to
the markets, has destructive consequences for the most vulnerable.
Unpredictable rainfall, recurring drought, and loss of soil fertility have
all made the maize harvests in Africa uncertain. Today, many farm families
cannot grow enough food to last the year and do not have income to buy food.
Accepting donated food aid is often the only way to survive. This robs
families of their dignity and shackles development.

For more than a decade, CIMMYT and IITA, working in cooperation with a wide
range of partners in countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa, have been
developing solutions, in particular maize that can produce even during
drought, for farm families who depend on maize for their food security and
livelihoods. Farmers themselves participate in the breeding process,
providing land for test plots and screening, and scoring potential new
varieties. Thanks to the combined efforts of national agricultural research
systems, non-government organizations, and seed companies in several African
nations, up to a million hectares are now sown to new, drought-tolerant
varieties, giving farmers a 25-30% boost in yield.

But there is much more potential to be realized for farmers in the region,
potential that can raise farm families from below subsistence to annual
surplus. That will give them the option to sell surpluses to the rapidly
growing urban markets or to devote some of their land to other crops, in
particular crops which contribute to restoring soil fertility and enhancing
incomes. In either case the farmer?s overall risk is lessened and life and
livelihoods improved.

"With every year of research that we do now and in the future, we can add to
a drought-affected fields another 100 kilograms of maize," says Marianne
Bänziger, Director of CIMMYT?s Global Maize Program, "That means more maize
for farming families to eat or sell when conditions are toughest."

CIMMYT and IITA will combine their expertise in working with maize farmers
in varying agro-ecologies across the continent and will draw from the
genetic resources (maize seeds) held in their two substantial germplasm
banks to make this research program truly pan-African.

The vision of the new work is to generate maize varieties which are much
hardier when drought hits. Doubling the yield of adapted maize varieties
under drought is the ambitious goal for the next 10 years and is possible
because of the huge, natural, genetic variation in maize and new scientific
methods that permit better use of this variation. New varieties of drought
tolerant maize will play a significant part in mitigating the potentially
disastrous consequences for the crop that could result from global warming.

"The importance of this work to sub-Saharan Africa and its people cannot be
overemphasized," says Romano Kiome, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of
Agriculture of Kenya. "It is heartening that the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation has recognized it and sees the long-term vision of this project
as part of their strategy to help Africa?s development."

CIMMYT and IITA will continue to use both participatory breeding strategies
and drought-stress screening, combined with the new techniques of
marker-assisted selection, to improve the efficiency of breeding. The
scientists will also analyze bottlenecks in seed systems and identify
high-priority areas for future poverty-reducing investments. Finally, work
will greatly expand partnerships with national agricultural research
systems, non-government organizations, seed companies, and other development
initiatives in the region to ensure positive impacts for resource-poor
farmers.

[www.seedquest.com]