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New Maize |
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South Africa’s poorest farmers can expect a new, affordable option for sustaining food production and increasing agricultural economic returns. Plans for the release of two improved open-pollinated maize varieties will be announced by South Africa ’s Ministry of Agriculture at the Cedara Agricultural Centre near Pietermaritzburg on 21 May 2001. Developed through an intensive effort involving many partners, including South African researchers and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the new varieties, called “ZM521 ” and "Grace,” represent a major advance in developing appropriate technologies for the smallholder farming sector in South Africa. |
The new varieties have several advantages (see Facts about new maize varieties). ZM521 yields 30-50%more than traditional varieties under drought and low soil fertility, two problems that commonly keep smallholder farmers in a cycle of poverty. Farmers value Grace, the other new variety, because it is early maturing, resistant to maize streak virus, suitable for green maize production, and has a very flinty grain type. Because they are open-pollinated varieties, their seed will be cheaper than hybrid seed, and farmers can plant their saved grain if they do not have the means to buy fresh seed.
The release will be announced at an event in honor of the collaboration between South Africa and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a consortium that supports CIMMYT and several other research centers.
New Varieties and New Possibilities for Farmers
The two new varieties are an answer to the specific environmental and socioeconomic constraints that characterize smallholder agriculture in South Africa. While hybrid seed, mineral fertilizer, and access to capital have boosted commercial maize production, many smallholder farmers lack the resources to access these technologies. Little was done in the past to provide more appropriate and affordable technologies to these farmers.
Backed by the new South African agricultural policy framework, the Northern Province Department of Agriculture and Environment (NPDAE) decided to reorient extension services to smallholders and, in 1998, launched the Broadening Agricultural Services and Extension Delivery Programme (BASED). Under this new program, researchers, together with farmers, develop sustainable mixed farming systems to enhance agricultural economic returns while sustaining food production. In the context of this program, smallholder farmers voiced a demand for seed of improved open-pollinated maize varieties (OPVs). Compared to traditional (“local”) OPVs, these improved varieties ideally would cope better with drought and low soil fertility, would taste and store as well, would mature faster, and would meet market requirements for pure white grains. Smallholder farmers argue that recycling OPV seed carries no yield penalty. The economic return of improved OPVs over seasons, particularly when the OPVs are grown in harsh environments, may therefore match that of more expensive hybrid seed.
Diverse Partners—One Important Objective
A diverse group of partners consulted with each other to see how farmers’ needs could be met. The group included the National Department of Agriculture, the Departments of Agriculture of the Northern Province and the Mpumalanga Province, the Grain Crops Institute of the Agricultural Research Council (GCI-ARC), the South African National Seed Organization (SANSOR), universities and agricultural colleges in the Northern Province, EcoLink Mpumalanga (an NGO), CIMMYT, and donors (see back page).
Whereas the majority of breeding institutions in South Africa have focused on developing hybrids over the past decades, CIMMYT has also bred OPVs that are adapted to smallholder farmers’ conditions and suited to their preferences. These experimental varieties are routinely tested through a regional network of maize researchers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. From the SADC-wide trials, this group of partners selected promising varieties for further testing with smallholder farmers in the Northern Province and the Mpumalanga Province. (The Lowveld Research Unit of the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture has had an on-going program with CIMMYT since 1992.)
 Mpumulanga farmers harvesting Grace, one of the new maize varieties. |
The varieties were evaluated using “Mother-Baby Trials,” followed by a large number of demonstration plots. Mother-Baby Trials very effectively assess the performance and acceptance of new varieties under smallholder farmers’ conditions. ZM521 and Grace were rapidly identified as varieties that did well under difficult conditions and had characteristics that smallholder farmers valued and requested. While Grace was liked for its early maturity and good disease resistance, ZM521 excelled particularly under drought and low fertility conditions. The grain of both varieties is much more flinty than grain of commercial hybrids. Farmers perceive that flint grain dries more quickly and stores better than dent grain. Women farmers like the amount of flour produced when this flint grain is milled and the good stamp of mealie meal they get when it is pounded. Millers at the large Maizecor mill in Nelspruit and in villages remarked on the excellent quality of the mealie meal and the high flour output of Grace.
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Good Seed for Rural Communities The word about ZM521 and Grace got around quickly, and farmers wanted to know how to multiply and maintain seed of these OPVs. Under programs supported by German Technical Co-operation and the British High Commission, the NPDAE and EcoLink have started to train farmers in seed production, and communities are building up seed stocks. Last season, 600 packets of farmer-produced Grace seed had already been supplied to farmers in Mpumalanga and the Northern Province, and in spite of adverse weather, 12 farmers produced ZM521 seed on areas of 0.25 hectares or more. In view of the rapidly increasing demand for seed, a local farmer organization will involve about 30 farmers and use about 14 hectares of land for irrigated seed production of these OPVs this winter. To make this popular seed more widely available in South Africa, it was decided that the Grain Crop Institute of the Agricultural Research Council in Potchefstroom would register the varieties so that they could be officially released in South Africa, multiplied on a larger scale, and then made available to seed companies, NGOs, and other organizations. One hope is that farmers can become partners of seed companies or farmer cooperatives in multiplying seed of these and future OPVs. Seed multiplication could become an important additional means for smallholders to generate income. For example, EcoLink will set up a Public Benefit Company, EcoLink Seeds, in which the farmers that were trained in seed production are partners. The new company will produce seed of ZM521 and Grace in 2001. Researchers hope that this collaboration between many partners can serve as a model for providing better varieties of crops that are important to poor smallholder farmers in South Africa. Because the research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), such as CIMMYT, focus on the problems of resource-poor farmers, they have much to offer in this partnership.
Scope for Success This work shows that there is considerable scope for success in improving agriculture and rural livelihoods for the poorest farmers in South Africa. Progress can become extremely rapid when partners with many different areas of expertise are highly engaged in making a difference. Through the partnership described here, many farmers have obtained greater control over their circumstances. They can participate more widely in the selection of the maize varieties they want to grow and have the opportunity of developing economically viable and sustainable seed production systems. For many of them, this involvement could be the beginning of more food-secure and financially secure livelihoods. |
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 How did the variety Grace get its name? Farmers named the variety after Grace Green (shown at left), who multiplied seed of the new variety so that farmers could try it on their own fields. The variety's original name was EWF-2. |
For more information, contact:
Richard Ramugondo, NPDAE / ramugondorr@agrich.norprov.gov.za
Alex McDonald, GCI-ARC / alex@igg2.agric.za
CIMMYT-Zimbabwe / cimmyt-zimbabwe@cgiar.org
Published on September 2001
August, 2004