# **Overview of Maize in Africa**

# _Trends in Production_<sup>1</sup>

Maize currently covers 25 M ha in Sub-Saharan Africa, largely in smallholder systems that produced 38 M in 2005-8, primarily for food. From 2005-8, maize represented an average of 27 percent of cereal area, 34 percent of cereal production and 8 percent of the value of all primary crop production (Table 1). This includes estimated area and production of green maize, which is highly valued as the harvest approaches at the end of the ―hungry season‖. From 1961-2008, maize dropped slightly as a share of total area in primary crops, but not as a share of area of production of cereals, which has fluctuated between 32 and 45 percent over that time period.

The potential for expanding maize production in Sub-Saharan Africa is huge. Even after excluding protected and forested areas, an estimated 88 M ha of land that is not yet planted to maize is suited to the crop. Worldwide, this amount is equivalent to four times the area now planted to maize and over half of the additional land area that is suitable for maize (Deininger and Byerlee, 2011). By far the largest proportion of this area is found in Sudan. Other areas with considerable potential for expansion are in Eastern and Southern Africa, including Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Madagascar and Tanzania.

However, maize producers in these regions are often far from population centers with the markets and financial services that are conducive to technical change. Physical access to markets is far more restricted for farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa than for farmers in other regions of the developing rural world. Only a quarter of farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are within 2 hours of markets by motorized transport, as compared to nearly half of farmers in Asia and the Pacific, and 43% for the developing rural world. An estimated 75% of farmers are located more than 4 hours to the nearest market, by motorized transport, as compared to 45% in Asia and the Pacific (Kate Sebastian, pers. comm). Of course, most rural people in Sub-Saharan Africa have no access to motorized transport, so these figures understate the magnitude of the problem.

In sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, the highest growth in maize area, yields, and production from 1961 over the entire period has been in West Africa, and the least has been in Southern Africa where yields have stagnated at a little over 1 t/ha.<sup>2</sup> These differences are 1 For consistency, despite well-known limitations, all figures reported in this section are calculated from FAOSTAT data available at http://faostat.fao.org. Regional names are those used by FAO, although countries included by region differ. Country lists are compared in Annex 1.

> 2 An additional 2.8 million ha is grown in South Africa, mostly on large-scale commercial farms (averaging about 380 ha each), much of it yellow maize for animal feed.  Owing to its apartheid legacy, smallholder maize contributes less than 15% of national production, and accounts for only a minor fraction of household income of black rural families. Maize marketing and pricing policy issues focus primarily on keeping food prices at tolerable levels for urban consumers, and ensuring the continued viability of the large commercial farm sector, with very little attention to smallholder maize production or marketing. National yields have steadily improved to reach about 5 t/ha while area has declined.  Except in drought years, South Africa produces a modest maize surplus for export.  Yield increases partly reflect deregulation of the industry and the reduction of maize area where it is no longer competitive because of lower yields and higher risks. Commercial farmers have also invested substantially to improve maize production. About one quarter of the area is irrigated. In Northern Cape Province, where all maize is irrigated, yields are around 10 t/ha. Farmers also use advanced maize hybrids, including genetically modified seed, and apply about 75 kg/ha of fertilizer nutrients, much higher than elsewhere in Africa. Given its uniqueness, we have chosen  not to include South Africa in analysis of regional data.

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