CIMMYT Report on maize improvement 1978-79

Abstract

This 1978-79 report on maize covers the research and training activities of CIMMYT scientists and presents data from international testing program activities during these years. The progress we report is the result of a collective effort involving scientists in more than 80 countries. Through the work of this fraternity of scientists, improved maize varieties continue to be developed which offer higher yield potential and greater environmental stability for conditions in cooperating countries. CIMMYT's efforts in maize improvement are directed toward the development and maintenance of broad-based gene pools and populations. Toward this end we have designed and implemented a continuous improvement system in which a wide range of materials to serve the major maize-producing areas of the developing world are assembled into gene pools, which in turn are improved to the point that they are genetically ready to contribute superior and new germ plasm to more advanced populations to meet specific production objectives. Superior selections from these advance populations are, in turn, "fine-tuned" to produce high-yielding varieties which can provide farmers with materials capable of high and dependable yield performance. Testing plays a major role in this international and collaborative improvement system. Materials are tested at several stages of development but only after a judgment is made that each material offers superior germ plasm to cooperating countries and will serve national program needs. National collaborators playa key partnership role in the development of these Advanced-Unit populations, which are recombined on the basis of their progeny performance in replicated yield trials in the agroclimatic conditions where the population will be used. These on-site selections form the basis of future experimental varieties for a particular production situation; and across-site experimental varieties are also made, based on families with superior performance across all sites in which a particular population is tested. IMMYT, with its mandate to assist national maize programs throughout the developing world, emphasizes population improvement for awide range of production circumstances and consumer preferences. In this system, we emphasize open-pollinated varieties as the end product, given the circumstances of the majority of maize farmers in the tropics and subtropics and because of weaknesses in the seed production and distribution systems in most developing countries. CIMMYT populations have also proven beneficial to national hybrid breeding efforts in those collaborating countries where the requisite infrastructure exists to sustain more sophisticated hybrid development programs. As our scientists complete the decade of the 1970s, we believe that we have a research and training program that can (a) effectively serve the many different maize-growing countries around the world whose research systems are at different stages of development; (b) permit the continuous development and improvement of maize germ plasm to meet current and future needs; (c) provide an efficient linkage system to and from national programs; (d) meet the needs for exploratory and innovative maize research; and (e) provide important backstopping in the manpower development activities of cooperating national maize research programs. As our staff looks towards the 1980s, we are cO!1fident that superior germ plasm is available to improve vastly the maize production levels in most developing countries. At the same time, we are concerned that many national research and production systems lack the necessary resources and organizational structure to deliver improved technology to the farmer. While no blueprint can fit all circumstances, some key elements can be identified. First, the circumstances of farmers must be clearly ascertained in areas targeted for research attention. Interdisciplinary team work is a key ingredient for successful research and production efforts. A strong production and farmer orientation within research and extention organizations is essential to developing improved varieties and production practices. Scientists and extension workers cannot have such an orientation without the means and mobility to interact with farmers on a continuing basis. This mobility is being seriously impaired by the lack of transportation and fuel within many national research and production programs. A successful seed industry is also essential to any national effort to transform maize production. Without the ability to produce and distribute the seed of improved varieties to farmers, the efforts of maize improvement researchers do not reach farmers. Finally, without a set of policies and agricultural development strategies which stimulate increased production, the efforts of researchers and extension agents cannot achieve their full impact. Discontinuity in funding and staffing of integrated and well-targeted research and production programs continues to be a major obstacle in most countries which are in desperate need of production increases. As developing countries look toward the 1980s to devise strategies to feed their growing populations, we believe that the maize crop possesses the greatest biological potential among cereals to substantially raise food production in the developing world. Our efforts during the 1980s will be directed toward the goal of realizing the tremendous biological potential of maize for tropical and subtropical production conditions.