Maize technology toolkit catalogue: <i>TAAT Clearinghouse technical report series 008</i>
Creators: name: TAAT Clearinghouse
Publisher: name: Gates Open Research
Year: 2021

description: This catalogue describes a suite of technologies related to the modernization of maize production in Africa. It is based upon the combined efforts of the Project Platform for Agricultural Solutions (ProPAS), an information internet site, and the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a large collaborative program that is deploying agricultural solutions across the continent. Both activities are based upon the imperative to better connect proven technologies to those who need them, but each undertakes this goal in a very different manner. Maize is one of TAAT’s priority commodities because of its huge importance to food and nutritional security, as well as rural development in general across Africa. It is also targeted as an agro-industrial crop for processing and trade within world markets. During its compilation, ProPAS has accumulated several technologies that specifically address this commodity and we have compiled them into a “technology toolkit” designed to advance understanding and encourage adoption and investment into the proven agricultural solutions that advance this crop. This is the fourth of several catalogues that we intend to produce as a joint ProPAS-TAAT activity.<br> <br> ProPAS provides a mechanism to compile and access innovations, management technologies, and products needed for Africa’s agricultural transformation. The platform provides two pathways: it permits users to enter their proven and promising solutions into a database and then encourages others to sort through its options to reveal the suite of opportunities that can assist their agricultural objectives. ProPAS results from the recognized need by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to compile and access the full range of agricultural solutions available to modernize and transform African agriculture more systematically. Its overall goal is to accelerate the process of agricultural transformation in Africa. Many solutions are available to improve and modernize Africa’s food systems but those who benefit from them most are often unaware of the best options at hand. In addition, more solutions are in the research and development pipeline that are best advanced through wider exposure and validation. Solution profiles are compiled and released in a systematic manner that involves submission by technology holders, entry into a user-friendly software platform, and use by an expanding base of clients. A small committee of agricultural experts oversees this process but recognizes that its strength is through open-ended access to a marketplace of solutions. ProPAS is therefore managed through a three-phase process that involves solution submission, database management, and client access. The database allows for solutions to be identified through a selection of several search fields related to the form, type, commodity application, and target beneficiaries of a given solution, sequentially narrowing the number of platform recommendations.<br> <br> The Technology for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is a program led by IITA that has pioneered new approaches to the deployment of proven technologies to African farmers. TAAT arose as a common effort of IITA and the African Development Bank (AfDB) and is an important component of the latter’s Feed Africa Strategy. TAAT is currently advancing 76 carefully selected technologies through 88 interventions in 28 countries. It is organized around 15 “Compacts” that represent priorities in terms of achieving Africa’s potential in achieving food security and advancing its role in global agricultural trade. Nine of these Compacts relate to specific priority value chains of rice, wheat, maize, sorghum and millet, cassava, sweet potato, bean, fish, and small livestock. Weaknesses in the production of commodities are viewed as responsible for Africa’s food insecurity, need for excessive importation of food, and unrealized expansion of Africa’s food exports. Together these Compacts design interventions in collaboration with national programs to introduce technologies and management innovations that are designed to meet targets for agricultural development. In many cases, these targets are addressed through the implementation of projects resulting from sovereign country loans awarded by development banks, and TAAT’s role in the planning and execution of these loan projects is becoming a vital element of their success.<br> The Clearinghouse developed a database of the Top 100 Technologies that are transforming African agriculture. It is based upon the approaches of the TAAT Commodity Compacts but also includes those from the CGIAR Collaborative Research Programs that are recently described as ready for the next user. These technologies are divided between those involving improved genetics and plant and animal breeding (23%), those based upon the distribution of digital information (3%), production input products of proven efficacy (21%), crop and animal management technologies of utility within agricultural extension messaging and advocacy (27%) and the availability of appropriately designed labor-saving equipment (26%). These technologies have a direct role in the achievement of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in relationship to farm productivity, food security and hunger reduction, improved household nutrition and diets, economic growth, climate-smart innovation, and improved human equity.<br> This Maize catalogue presents ten technologies that serve to modernize the production and post-harvest processing of maize in Africa. These technologies include: 1) drought-tolerant maize varieties to strengthen the resilience of food production, 2) imazapyr resistant maize varieties that withstand parasitic Striga weeds, 3) golden maize varieties with pro-vitamin A biofortification for better nutrition, 4) streamlined licensing mechanism for commercial multiplication of hybrid maize varieties, 5) information platforms offering access to contracting of mechanized farm services, 6) pre-plant fertilizer blends and nitrogen topdressing for balanced nutrient supply, 7) legume rotation and intercropping with maize to improve soil fertility and economic yields, 8) herbicides for pre-emergence and post-emergence treatment that avoid early and late-season weed encroachment, 9) control of the fall armyworm (FAW) invasion through systemic pesticides applied to seeds and sprayed on the crop, and 10) prevention of aflatoxin contamination with biological agents. Details on each of these ten technologies are given followed by a strategy to include TAAT in technology brokerage.<br> <br> This catalogue provides a wide variety of options for modernizing maize production in Africa. It identifies high-yielding varieties that resist drought and pernicious pests and means to improve the nutritional value of this important grain staple. It provides better options for large-scale production of improved maize seed through existing mechanisms for commercial licensing, and access to mechanized agricultural equipment through platforms for contracting between owners, brokers, and farmers. The catalogue advances fertilizer and soil nutrient management in maize cultivation by featuring balanced pre-plant and top-dress mineral inputs along with mixed cropping with legumes to increase belowground N stocks in cropland soils. The catalog advances weed management by signaling the advantages of specialty herbicides for application during the early stages of the maize production cycle. It also provides insights into the techno-economic implementation of Fall Armyworm control strategies by seed-coating and spraying of chemical agents. It also features biotechnology that prevents aflatoxin contaminants from entering food systems. Maize grain is an important human food, but it can also be processed into high-quality flour and possibly starches from which a wide variety of products can be manufactured. In addition, maize stover is widely used as fodder for livestock, and important for practices like mulching and soil carbon maintenance. Technologies featured in this toolkit offer the means for maize growing communities in Africa to access the high-end of the value chain and global marketplace, which can boost incomes of small-scale farmers and commercial agribusinesses alike.<br> This catalogue was prepared with a variety of users in mind whether they be producers, agents of agricultural development or private sector investors. Farmers can use many of these catalogue items as production guidelines. Those from the public sector can utilize the catalogue as a whole and design agricultural projects involving maize around its toolkit of modernizing technologies. Members of the private sector, including seed producers, input manufacturers, processors, and investors also benefit from the contents of this catalogue. Indeed, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation Program’s Clearinghouse welcomes feedback on its contents.