Drought has an overwhelming importance to Africa, affecting people’s livelihoods, food security and economic development. Effective approaches to combat current impacts of drought and the looming threats of climate change are of uttermost importance.
The DTMA Initiative joins the efforts of people, organizations and projects supporting the development and dissemination of drought tolerant maize in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The work builds on CIMMYT’s recognized efforts to develop and perfect the science of breeding for drought tolerance in maize.
The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project
The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project is part of the DTMA Initiative and is supported by the B&MGF and Howard G. Buffet Foundation to accelerate drought tolerant maize development and deployment in 13 countries in SSA.
Rationale
Maize is life to more than 300 million of Africa’s most vulnerable. It is Africa’s most important cereal food crop. When recurrent droughts in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) ruin harvests, lives and livelihoods are threatened, even destroyed. Experts say that the situation may become even worse as climate change progresses. Developing, distributing and cultivating drought tolerant maize varieties is one highly relevant intervention to reduce vulnerability, food insecurity and the damage to local markets accompanying food aid in SSA.
Drought tolerant maize varieties – a reality?
Maize is by nature a highly diverse crop and its tolerance to drought can be significantly enhanced through appropriate breeding techniques. CIMMYT and IITA have been working for over 10 years with national agricultural research institutes to adapt these breeding techniques to SSA. As a result, over 50 new maize hybrids and open-pollinated maize varieties have been developed and provided to seed companies and NGOs for dissemination, and several of them have reached farmers’ fields (See related story: "Winning in the long run"). These drought tolerant maize varieties produce about 20-50% higher yields than other maize varieties under drought.
From the biological point of view, we see at this stage no limit to build even stronger resistance to drought into maize varieties adapted to farmers’ conditions in SSA. Also, a much greater number of farmers could benefit from existing drought tolerant maize varieties, provided the seed is made available and farmers learn about these varieties.
Vision
The vision of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project is to significantly scale-up efforts to reach a greater number of poor farmers in SSA with maize varieties that have increased levels of drought tolerance. Indeed, over the next ten years our ambitious goal is to generate maize varieties with 100% superior drought tolerance; increase productivity under smallholder farmer conditions by 20-30%; and reach 30-40 million people in SSA.
How will all this be achieved?
The discovery, enhancement and delivery of drought tolerant maize varieties to farmers can be visualized as a pipeline, starting from accessing new sources of drought tolerance from among the world’s genetic resources, through strategic germplasm enhancement targeted at smallholder farmers’ maize production environments in SSA, to in-country variety testing and release, and seed dissemination to target beneficiaries. DTMA will focus on improving, accelerating and enlarging the entire drought tolerant maize variety development and delivery pipeline targeted at SSA, including removing institutional bottlenecks for rapidly scaling up and out to reach 30-40 million people over a 10-year time frame.
In particular the Project will
Survey the global maize genetic resources to identify new sources for drought tolerance.
Further develop applied maize breeding methodologies and approaches that greatly accelerate breeding progress for drought tolerance suited to smallholder conditions.
Develop drought tolerant maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) adapted to the main drought-affected agro-ecologies and small farmer production conditions in SSA.
Enhance the success of public national agricultural research institutes (NARIs) and private sector breeders in SSA for improving and selecting their own maize varieties for drought tolerance, performance and acceptance under smallholder farmers’ conditions.
Support and accelerate variety testing and release of drought tolerant varieties in various African countries.
Increase the capacity of local seed companies and community-based seed production schemes to disseminate drought tolerant maize varieties to a greater number of farmers in SSA.
Inform policy makers and farmer support groups about drought tolerant maize varieties.
Inform investors of the most effective strategies for greatest impact on poverty reduction of smallholder farmers in drought zones of Africa.
The Project builds on an established partnership between CIMMYT, IITA, national agricultural research institutes (NARIs) in sub-Saharan African countries, advanced research institutions, private sector seed companies, NGOs, and CBOs. On certain strategic research questions, we draw on the expertise of advanced research institutions such us Cornell University or the University of Hohenheim.
Where is the DTMA Project being implemented? Ultimately, any drought-affected maize farmer in SSA should be able to benefit from DTMA. For maize variety development, the Project focuses on 13 countries where maize is the most important and drought routinely occurs.
Other countries are expected to benefit indirectly eg by releasing and growing maize varieties from the Project in their own country.
Who supports drought tolerant maize research in SSA?
At this stage, over 50 partner organizations are directly or indirectly involved in working with CIMMYT and IITA on the development and dissemination of drought tolerant maize varieties in SSA. These include
National governments whose agricultural research and extension branches engage in the local adaptation, farmer-participatory testing and promotion of new varieties
Farming communities who assess and provide feed-back to new varieties
Private seed companies and community-based seed organization (CBOs) who engage in variety release, seed production and variety promotion
Non-governmental organizations which assist farming communities through information about drought tolerant maize varieties, bulk purchases or seed relief.
From the biological point of view, we see at this stage no limit to build even stronger resistance to drought into maize varieties adapted to farmers’ conditions in SSA. Also, a much greater number of farmers could benefit from existing drought tolerant maize varieties, provided the seed is made available and farmers learn about these varieties. 
