Agricultural Transformation in Maize Producing Areas of Africa

Abstract

Maize is a critical staple cereal across Sub-Saharan Africa but attempts to improve its productivity in small-scale farming systems often prove disappointing. The 12 key technologies required to overcome poor yields are mostly known, but the manner in which they are mobilized, packaged, and delivered requires re-evaluation. Combinations of better varieties and their necessary accompanying inputs must become more available and affordable for an African maize revolution to succeed, and land must be managed in ways that enhance, rather than diminish, land quality over time. Adjustments to the bundling and transfer of these technologies as transferable assets pose a solvable dilemma. These interventions must be based upon specific agro-ecological and socio-economic contexts and offered within the scope of well-designed regional and national agricultural development agendas. Success in boosting maize yields and its companion field legumes form the basis for greater food security across Africa and value-adding enterprises, including the growth of blended flours and commercial animal production. This chapter describes how these technologies may be most effectively mobilized within the current thrust to transform African agriculture.