For more than a decade, Zaire's maize production has not increased fast enough to supply rapidly increasing domestic demand. The result has been a sharp increase in maize imports, and this in turn has pinched already limited sources of foreign exchange. In an effort to increase understanding of Zaire's maize production system, this paper focuses on describing certain maize production practices in the south-central part of the country. Observations and data presented here are based on field research undertaken by Mwamufiya in 1974 and 1975, in conjunction with Zaire's national maize program. This research included a survey of 299 producers from four-adjacent districts. Three of these districts, Mwene-Ditu, Gandajika, and Tshilenge, are in the region of Kasai Oriental, while Kaniama, the fourth, is in the region of Shaba. The first part of this paper focuses on describing overall cropping patterns of farms in the survey area and shows how maize production fits into this scheme. Maize planting practices are then described, together with a description of seed origin, seed protection, and fertilization procedures. Related aspects of labor use and maize marketing and distribution have been treated in previous reports.