Abstract
Maize remains crucial for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. In some regions, the predominance of the crop in farming systems and diets implies that yield gains have the potential to jump-start a Green Revolution like those experienced in Asia for rice and wheat. However, despite episodes of success, the evidence compiled here suggests that very little progress has been made toward achieving this potential in recent years. Reversing this condition remains crucial to agricultural growth and food security in Africa.
Over the long term, large investments and sustained political commitment are needed to ensure strong plant breeding and seed systems to serve smallholders, predicated on improved crop management practices to protect soils and cope with unreliable rainfall, and access to appropriate labor-saving technologies. More innovative extension and advisory systems are also needed to facilitate farmer learning and adapt techniques and technologies to local environmental and social conditions. Better financial services, perhaps including new forms of insurance, are needed for smallholders.
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Notes
- 1.
For consistency, despite well-known limitations, all figures reported in this section are calculated from FAOSTAT data available at http://faostat.fao.org. Regional names are those used by FAO, although countries included by region differ. Country lists are compared in the Appendix.
- 2.
An additional 2.8 million ha is grown in South Africa, mostly on large-scale commercial farms (averaging about 380 ha each), much of it yellow maize for animal feed. Owing to its apartheid legacy, smallholder maize contributes less than 15% of national production, and accounts for a only a minor fraction of household income of black rural families. Maize marketing and pricing policy issues focus primarily on keeping food prices at tolerable levels for urban consumers, and ensuring the continued viability of the large commercial farm sector, with very little attention to smallholder maize production or marketing. National yields have steadily improved to reach about 5 t/ha while area has declined. Except in drought years, South Africa produces a modest maize surplus for export. Yield increases partly reflect deregulation of the industry and the reduction of maize area where it is no longer competitive because of lower yields and higher risks. Commercial farmers have also invested substantially to improve maize production. About one quarter of the area is irrigated. In Northern Cape Province, where all maize is irrigated, yields are around 10 t/ha. Farmers also use advanced maize hybrids, including genetically modified seed, and apply about 75 kg/ha of fertilizer nutrients, much higher than elsewhere in Africa. Given its uniqueness, we have chosen to not to include South Africa in analysis of regional data.
- 3.
By region, no trend is apparent in per capita maize consumption over the past five decades, although a slight increase is visible in Central Africa. However, in Ethiopia, maize as a percentage of daily energy has nearly doubled from 10% in 1961–1963 to 19% in 2003–2005.
- 4.
Because of the difficulty in measuring areas planted to improved OPVs, in particular, estimates should be considered with caution. Almost all of the maize area in West African countries, with the exception of Nigeria, is planted to improved open-pollinated varieties. Given that the private seed system has not been active, it is likely that farmers practice seed saving for much more than the recommended number of years and because of cross-pollination, it may be difficult to differentiate improved from unimproved materials.
- 5.
Technologies and management practices to reduce post harvest losses should be added to the list of opportunities for improving the efficiency of the maize supply chain. Various estimates put post harvest losses for maize grown by smallholders in the humid tropics of Africa at 15–20%.
- 6.
Nongovernmental organizations and national research organizations accounted for a scant 4% of all seed marketed in the region.
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Appendix: Country Classification Used to Analyze FAOSTAT Data
Appendix: Country Classification Used to Analyze FAOSTAT Data
The country classification used in this chapter differs from that used by FAOSTAT, with the exception Western Africa. Data was loaded for each country and summarized according to the following classifications:
Eastern Africa | Southern Africa | Western Africa | Central Africa |
|---|---|---|---|
Burundi | Angola | FAO | FAO without |
Comoros | Botswana | Angola | |
Eritrea | Lesotho | ||
Ethiopia | Malawi | ||
Kenya | Madagascar | ||
Mauritius | Mozambique | ||
Reunion | South Africa | ||
Rwanda | Swaziland | ||
Somalia | Zambia | ||
Tanzania | Zimbabwe | ||
Uganda | |||
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Smale, M., Byerlee, D., Jayne, T. (2013). Maize Revolutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Otsuka, K., Larson, D. (eds) An African Green Revolution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5760-8_8
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