Taking maize agronomy to scale in Africa (TAMASA): helping millions of maize farmers across sub-Saharan Africa achieve greater yields and incomes through the provision of farm-specific agronomic advice

Abstract

The current R&D landscape, particularly in agronomy, is characterized by blanket recommendations, poor availability, and limited use of spatial data. There are few options for rapid and cost-effective data collection, the result being that agronomy remains experiential, rather than predictive, and that site-specific knowledge cannot be shared or easily scaled out. TAMASA provides farmers with timely, accurate advice on subjects such as crop varieties, fertilizer use and seed spacing, which can help maximize their returns on input and labor investments. The project develops and institutionalizes geospatial, soil, and agronomic data-based decision-making tools to be used by smallholder farmers and agricultural service providers to increase crop productivity and profitability. Since 2015, this four-year project has conducted research on maize-based systems in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania, with a range of implementation and capacity development partners. The project operates in areas where maize-based systems can be intensified. Areas with intensification potential are those where maize is an important crop and which have relatively high population densities and good access to markets.