The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) is proud to release our 2019 Annual Report.
Around the world, the COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the need to strengthen food systems while improving the food security and livelihoods for the most vulnerable, especially the resource-constrained smallholder farmers.
In 2019, MAIZE made great advances in the development of improved stress-tolerant maize varieties, with enhanced genetic gain and novel genetic diversity and tools. National partners and seed companies across Africa, Latin America and Asia released 82 unique CGIAR-derived maize varieties. In addition to high yield, these elite varieties are stacked with multiple traits needed by the smallholder farmers to protect their crops from drought, heat and diseases. These MAIZE varieties also included nine nutritionally-enriched varieties with improved protein quality, provitamin A and high kernel zinc.
A new Fall Armyworm Research Collaboration Portal has been launched to facilitate global research collaboration to help fight the devastating crop pest fall armyworm (FAW).
Developed by CABI in partnership with leading researchers and institutions, the portal is a free-to-access platform that enables the sharing of research data, insights and outputs, and includes a range of key features such as posting research updates, identifying collaborators, and posting questions to the community.
Participants at a February 2020 maize working group meeting of the Pakistan Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) with seed of maize parental lines shared by CIMMYT. (Photo: Awais Yaqub)
A unique consortium of global and Pakistan scientists has helped to drive the country’s recent growth in annual maize output to 6.3 million tons — nearly double the 2010 output — and energized the domestic production of affordable, quality seed of more nutritious and climate-resilient maize varieties.
B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), will participate in this webinar organized by Agrilinks.
