Smallholder maize farmers in developing countries are facing mounting challenges from climate change and increasing scarcity of resources like arable land and water. These pressures can result in lower than average yields, crop susceptibility to pests and diseases and abiotic stresses, such as droughts that can be frequent and severe.
Sustainable intensification helps smallholder maize farmers thrive while minimizing environmental impacts. MAIZE works with farmers to develop and promote sustainable farming approaches that help to increase maize yields and food security while minimizing negative environmental impacts.
Such approaches as conservation agriculture (CA), appropriate mechanization, and access to improved seed contribute to sustainable intensification. Through an inclusive and participatory approach, MAIZE helps farmers adopt these practices at a pace and scale suited to their particular socioeconomic and farming circumstances.
Project work across Asia, Africa and Latin America tests and adapts tools that can increase farm productivity, profitability and resilience; explores the capacity of farmers to adopt innovations and new practices; and investigates market risks and opportunities. MAIZE achieves its global impact through effective collaboration with partners throughout the maize value chain.
During 2018, MAIZE worked with farmers and partners to roll out improved technologies and management practices in South Asia through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project Phase III and CSISA-MI. Central to this process are improved seed innovations and sustainable intensification.
In collaboration with machinery traders and the Nepal government-led Maize Super Zone program, CSISA provided trainings to service providers and technicians focused on the operation of seed drills and power weeders. These machines have the potential to reduce cultivation costs by 50%.
The project co-organized a high-level regional stakeholder engagement platform on crop insurance, imparting important evidence-based support for increasing the scope of agricultural risk management in South Asia. Through partnership with the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project (NSAF), CSISA jointly determined the policy roadmap for the fertilizer sector in Nepal. Furthermore, the new Soil Intelligence System (SIS) for India will help the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha rationalize the costs of generating high-quality soil data and to build accessible geospatial information systems to support decision-making.
In Africa, MAIZE developed decision-support systems for farmers and explored opportunities for scaling these innovations. The Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa project (TAMASA) worked with partners to provide fertilizer recommendations to farmers using the Nutrient Expert (NE) decision-support tool. TAMASA leveraged partnerships to broaden the stakeholder base for scaling out of Nutrient Expert in Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia, including linkages with national institutions, private, and public research and extension systems. In Nigeria, TAMASA trained 37 extension staff in NE services, benefiting 717 farmers. A win-win collaboration with a major Africa fertilizer company facilitated NE reaching over 10,000 farmers in Nigeria alone.
Agroforestry is gaining momentum as a possible solution to production and environmental challenges in agriculture. In 2018, MAIZE researchers found combined CA and agroforestry reduced maize growth attributes and yields. A further study found trade-offs of maize cultivation with agroforestry could be significantly reduced by using ‘good agronomic practices’. Research suggests addressing practices and enablers that improve the productivity, profitability, and feasibility of CA systems in southern Africa could stimulate wider adoption of CA by smallholders.
The Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification project (FACASI) delivered trainings for 79 small mechanization service providers across Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and supported the creation of at least 64 shelling and 17 planting businesses with capacity to employ at least 162 people. (Photo: Matthew O'Leary)
The Buena Milpa project in Guatemala integrated the expertise of local partners and transferred best practices and maize improvement technologies to farmers. Project sustainability and exit strategies include support of key farmers associations, government and non-government institutions to build their coordination and innovation capacity and continue scaling of activities.
During 2018, the project trained 3,331 farmers on different maize conservation technologies, including post-harvest techniques, distributing more than 140 silos to improve the post-harvest quality of maize and reduce mycotoxins. The project delivered training to 35 technicians from 18 institutions to build the technical capacity of local organizations so they can enhance their production of native seeds of vegetables.
Photos: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT; Amador Aguillón/CIMMYT; Matthew O'Leary/CIMMYT; M.DeFreese/CIMMYT