Over its lifespan, the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), in collaboration with partner organizations, has produced a broad range of innovations, such as climate-resilient crops, sustainable land use practices, farm mechanization options and effective extension services, which have significant potential to improve livelihoods and foster more productive, sustainable maize farming. But ensuring research and its outcomes reach a meaningful number of farmers to have a widespread impact is challenging.
Flagship Project 1 (FP1) of the MAIZE Research Program: “Enhancing MAIZE research for development strategy for impact,” seeks to ensure research is translated into impact. Its mandate is to prioritize, target, understand and enhance interventions in maize based agri-food systems for greatest impact using multidisciplinary collaborative research. Through monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of MAIZE work and the study of dynamics of gender and social inclusion, FP1 helps link MAIZE research to specific development needs, increasing its relevance and impact.
In 2017, MAIZE impact studies spanned broad but interconnected disciplines and topics, including such critical issues as climate-resilience, child nutrition, and poverty reduction across all MAIZE operational regions—Africa, Asia and Latin America.
MAIZE researchers recently revealed how using heat-tolerant maize varieties can minimize yield losses due to climate change in South Asia. Elevated year-round temperatures and increased frequency and intensity of heat waves are among the many manifestations of climate change. The ensuing heat stress can devastate crop yields, presenting challenges to food production and security. Indeed, yield losses predicted in India from projected climate scenarios are expected to result in an annual deficit of up to US$20 billion.
Therefore, from both a food security and economic perspective, it is essential to know what impact climate-resilient maize varieties can have on yields in South Asia under projected future climate conditions. Researchers demonstrated that use of heat-tolerant maize varieties, such as those developed by MAIZE, can reduce yield loss in South Asia by up to 36% and 93% in 2030 and by 33% and 86% in 2050, under rainfed and irrigated conditions respectively. Such results highlight the importance of MAIZE work in developing and distributing climate-resilient maize, which has the potential to shield farmers from severe yield loss due to heat stress, helping them mitigate the impacts of climate change.
In one of the first empirical investigations of its kind, MAIZE researchers assessed how the adoption of improved maize varieties affects child nutrition in Ethiopia. Maize is the most important staple cereal crop in Sub-Saharan Africa, and better knowledge of the nutritional benefits of improved maize will provide vital information that can assist policy decisions aimed at reducing malnutrition.
The results from extensive household surveys found that the adoption of improved maize significantly benefits child nutrition in terms of height-for-age and weight-for-age measurements, with benefits most significant among children with poorest nutrition backgrounds. Researchers also found that households with female or less-educated leaders are less likely to use improved seed, highlighting potential constraints such as prohibitive financial cost, disruptions in local seed market supply, and difficulty travelling the long distance to seed dealers.
Not only does this study emphasize the importance of improved maize on child nutrition—especially those with poorer nutritional circumstances—it also underscores the importance of policies that enhance access to improved seed inputs and extension services for vulnerable and poorer households.
In Latin America, the western highlands of Guatemala are of particular significance in the history of maize farming—they comprise part of the area where maize was first domesticated. Today, maize is still central to farmers’ livelihoods and food security, but life is hard, poverty affects over 50 percent of the population while 48% suffer from chronic malnutrition. As a follow-up to the Buena Milpa project, MAIZE researchers investigated whether selling native maize at a higher premium to specialist, niche markets (an initiative that has had some success in neighboring Mexico) could boost poverty reduction in the region.
The study found that the majority of smallholder farmers in western Guatemala had extremely small landholdings where they only produced enough maize to feed their families for 6.9 months of the year, thereafter having to buy additional maize to eat. Given this reliance on subsistence and lack of surplus maize to sell at market, researchers suggest other types of poverty reducing interventions would be more appropriate. To this end, MAIZE is planning a series of workshops aimed at extension agent collaborators that will address social inclusion issues in this region of Guatemala.
New knowledge generated by MAIZE researchers in 2017 shows the valuable impact of MAIZE work in targeting critical challenges, including food insecurity, malnutrition, climate change and poverty reduction. Using its multidisciplinary, collaborative approach, MAIZE is committed to reaching as many farmers and consumers as possible to effect widespread change with the aim of improving livelihoods and supporting productive, sustainable maize farming.
Original citations:
Tesfaye, K., Zaidi, P.H., Gbegbelegbe, S., Boeber, C., Rahut, D.B., Getaneh, F., Seetharam, K., Erenstein, O., Stirling, C. (2017) Climate change impacts and potential benefits of heat-tolerant maize in South Asia. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 130, 959–970.
Zeng, D., Alwang, J., Norton, G.W., Shiferaw, B., Jaleta, M., Yirga, C. (2017) Agricultural technology adoption and child nutrition enhancement: improved maize varieties in rural Ethiopia. Agricultural Economics 48, 573–586.
Hellin, J., Cox, R., López-Ridaura, S. (2017) Maize Diversity, Market Access, and Poverty Reduction in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Mountain Research and Development 37, 188-197.