Hybrid Maize in Sub-Saharan Africa: Problems and Prospects


Virtually no-one involved in maize
research and production would
disagree with geneticist Paul
Mangelsdorfs (1985) remark that
hybrid maize represents the most
far-reaching development in
applied biology in the latter half of
the 20th century. But as true as
Mangelsdorfs assertion may be in
general, it carries less weight in
many developing countries, where
the widespread adoption of hybrid
maize is frequently aspired to but
seldom realized.

Hybrid maize has performed well
in developing countries that have
temperate production zones, such
as Argentina, Chile, and China.
These countries contain cool, moist
environments with high potential
for maize production, and local
maize breeders can draw directly
on the stock of superior hybrids
available in the USA and Europe.

Successful hybrids have been de-
veloped for the more favored envi-
ronments of sub-Saharan Africa,
such as the higher altitude areas of
eastern and southern Africa. Yield
gains of 25% or more over local
materials attributable to hybrid
germplasm alone have been re-
corded in numerous on-farm trials.
Because the better hybrids deliver
reasonably high yields with com-
paratively low risk, they have been
widely adopted in a number of
countries.

In hopes of extending these suc-
cesses, breeders are currently at-
tempting to develop hybrids
adapted to the economically and
ecologically less favored environ-
ments of sub-Saharan Africa.
Although relatively little research
has been done on hybrid maize in
many developing countries,
hybrids show less yield advantage


when grown under lowland tropical
conditions, as in most countries in
4p-Saharan Africa. Furthermore,
.he superiority of hybrid
germplasm diminishes when it is
grown under low levels of inputs
and management: in some mar-
ginal environments under subsis-
tence farming conditions, the yield
difference between hybrids and
open-pollinated varieties becomes
narrow or nonexistent (Low and
Waddington 1989).

In sub-Saharan Africa, as else-
where in the developing world,
generating superior germplasm is
just half the battle. The other half
is delivering the materials to
resource-poor farmers. Institu-
tional and political barriers fre-
quently limit the production of high
quality seed, particularly of
hybrids. Poor seed quality often
results from inadequate production
and marketing facilities, as well as
from a lack of adequately trained
seed production specialists. These
are the predictable consequences of
severe budget constraints, espe-
cially in the public sector, which
tends to be heavily involved in seed
production. Poor seed quality can
mask the true genetic potential of
improved materials and reduce the
likelihood that farmers will
continue to use them.

Enterprises that produce hybrid
maize seed, whether public or
private, have a commercial interest
in maintaining high standards of
seed quality. However, policy
barriers often restrict the produc-
tion and distribution of
high-quality seed. Many govern-
ments control maize seed prices,
with the laudable objective.of
making seed readily accessible to a
greater number of farmers.
Unfortunately price controls may


reduce incentives for seed produc-
ers to provide a high-quality
product. In establishing retail seed
prices, for example, the govern-
ments of some countries have
restricted marketing margins
earned by seed enterprises to such
an extent that they have not been
able to meet processing and distri-
bution costs.

To help accelerate the progress of
national programs in developing
hybrids, CIMMYT and IITA pro-
vide information on the combining
ability of different materials,
improve parents for combining
ability, and develop methodologies
for producing conventional and
nonconventional hybrids. It is
important to recognize that the
eventual impact of hybrid breeding
efforts will depend very much on
improvement in local seed produc-
tion and distribution facilities,
which in turn will depend on the
general economic climate facing
seed producers and farmers. On
that front, there are encouraging
signs that local seed production
capacity is improving in many
countries, sometimes with support
from multinational seed companies.
The experiences of Kenya, Zim-
babwe, and Nigeria suggest that
the availability of hybrid materials
can contribute to the development
of a local seed industry and at the
same time have an important
catalytic effect upon suppliers of
fertilizer and other purchased
inputs. Significantly, companies
that produce and distribute hybrid
seed can also handle seed of im-
proved open-pollinated varieties
and synthetics, which in many
countries will continue to be the
most commonly used type of im-
proved germplasm well into the
next century.