Maize revolutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, Vol. 1 of 1

About

Countries

Data & Research

Learning

News

Projects & Operations

Publications

Topics

Home > Data & Research > Document Search > Report Details

Maize revolutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:	Smale, Melinda; Byerlee, Derek; Jayne, Thom;	Collection Title:	Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5659
Country:	Africa;	Date Stored:	2011/05/11
Document Date:	2011/05/01	Document Type:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English	Region:	Africa
Report Number:	WPS5659	SubTopics:	Crops and Crop Management Systems; Agricultural Research; Food & Beverage Industry; Food Security; Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems
Volume No:	1 of 1

Summary: There have been numerous episodes of widespread adoption of improved seed and long-term achievements in the development of the maize seed industry in Sub-Saharan Africa. This summary takes a circumspect view of technical change in maize production. Adoption of improved seed has continued to rise gradually, now representing an estimated 44 percent of maize area in Eastern and Southern Africa (outside South Africa), and 60 percent of maize area in West and Central Africa. Use of fertilizer and restorative crop management practices remains relatively low and inefficient. An array of extension models has been tested and a combination of approaches will be needed to reach maize producers in heterogeneous agricultural environments. Yield growth overall has been 1 percent over the past half-century, although this figure masks the high variability in maize yields, as well as improvements in resistance to disease and abiotic pressures that would have caused yield decline in the absence of maize breeding progress. The authors argue that conducive policies are equally, if not more, important for maize productivity in the region than the development of new technology and techniques. Currently popular, voucher-based subsidies can "crowd out" the private sector and could be fiscally unsustainable.


Official Documents Official, scanned versions of documents (may include signatures, etc.)
File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 34 pages	Official version*	2.38 (approx.)
	Text	Text version**

* The official version is derived from scanning the final, paper copy of the document and is the official,
archived version including all signatures, charts, etc.

** The text version is the OCR text of the final scanned version and is not an accurate representation of the final text.
It is provided solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/ROEG8HW9F0