Elsewhere in eastern and southern
Africa, improved maize materials
have not been adopted so readily,
often because they have not met
specific requirements of farmers.
For example in Malawi, even
though farmers expressed a clear
preference for flint maize, breeders
neglected flint types because they
had little access to improved flint
maize to use as source material in
their breeding work.5 For years
many of the improved maize varie-
ties released by the Malawian
breeding program were dent types.
Most farmers grew them only in
limited quantities for sale, prefer-
ring to plant unimproved flint
maize for home consumption. The
breeding program eventually recog-
nized this problem and now pro-
duces improved flint materials as
well as dents.

In western and central Africa,
adoption of improved maize
germplasm also has been uneven.
Use of improved materials, chiefly
open-pollinated varieties, is exten-
sive in some of the newer maize-
growing areas. In Nigeria's north-
ern Guinea savanna (parts of
Sokoto State excepted), almost all
the maize planted appears to
include improved germplasm,
mainly TZB and TZPB, varieties
that are particularly well adapted
to the ecology. Similarly, survey
data from the Brong-Ahafo region
of Ghana indicate widespread
adoption of improved maize materi-
als (Figure 9).



5 The difference between dent and flint
 maize is discussed on p. 24.
6 Where government-fixed prices exist in
 western and central Africa, they are
 generally irrelevant, since market prices
 in most years differ sharply from official
 prices.


In the more humid savanna and
forest zones, improved materials
have not been as widely adopted.
More than 90% of farmers in Benin
continue to plant traditional varie-
ties, in part because improved
materials are not always available,
but also because traditional varie-
ties suffer less damage in storage
and are better suited for local
dishes (Yallou et al. 1989). But even
in the more humid zones, low adop-
tion rates are far from universal. In
southern Nigeria, the spread of
seed with predominantly improved
germplasm appears high. Inspec-
tion of sample cobs from farmers'
fields in the semideciduous lowland
forest showed that 74% contained
improved germplasm (yet only 19%
of farmers classified their materials
as improved). This high adoption
rate may not reflect a conscious
decision on the part of farmers;
seed storage problems in this area
force farmers to purchase new seed
every year, and most of it is


produced in the north where
improved materials predominate
(Smith et al., forthcoming).

Hybrid maize has been introduced
in a few countries in western and
central Africa, but it is unlikely
that the area planted to hybrids
exceeds 2% in any country. Inter-
estingly, about half the hybrid seed
sold in Nigeria is sold in 5-kg
packages, implying that smallhold-
ers too are adopting hybrids.

Marketing and Price Policy
Government policies pertaining to
maize marketing and pricing vary
across Africa. Maize markets in
eastern and southern Africa are
characterized by extensive state
participation, whereas most west-
ern and central African countries
leave marketing and pricing of
maize in the hands of the private
sector.6 The sections that follow
discuss the sources and implica-
tions of this regional variation.


Cumulative % of farmers adopting
100


1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986


Source: Tripp et al. (1987).


Figure 9. Adoption of improved open-pollinated maize varieties in
Ghana, Brong-Ahafo region, 1980-86.