Maize improvement, production and protection in Eastern and Southern Africa: proceedings of the Third Eastern and Southern Africa regional maize workshop

Abstract

In the eastern and southern Africa region as a whole maize is the most important crop. It is a staple food in most of the countries of the region. Regional maize workshops of this type are important to forge closer links among the national programs of the region. The main purpose of this regional workshop, as similar ones in the past, is to bring together again maize researchers of eastern and southern Africa to share experiences and exchange results, discuss maize related regional technical problems and potential solutions, and strengthen regional cooperation. This workshop follows the first and the second regional maize workshops held in Lusaka and Harare in 1985 and 1987, respectively. Both the Lusaka and the Harare workshops were attended by about 100 participants each and the proceedings have been published by CIMMYT and distributed to all the national maize researchers and other interested parties. The delegates of the Lusaka workshop passed a resolution stating that such regional maize meetings be held every two years with the venue and host rotating among the countries of the region. In that recommendation, CIMMYT was requested to take the lead in organizing and sponsoring the workshop. This workshop is, therefore, a continuation of that series which started in Lusaka in 1985 and hopefully will continue for many years to come. In this workshop, we expect the number of participants to be similar to the last two. Invitations have been sent to the national maize programs of the region, selected seed companies, regional and international organizations interested on the maize crop. We have received positive responses from many of them as is evidenced by the record attendance in this workshop. Although this workshop is jointly organized by CIMMYT and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARl) we have received excellent cooperation from the Kenya Seed Company (KSC) in the planning stage of the field trip part of the workshop.