{"id":12892,"date":"2026-06-20T12:25:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/forging-ahead-drought-tolerant-maize-in-africa\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:25:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:25:43","slug":"forging-ahead-drought-tolerant-maize-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/forging-ahead-drought-tolerant-maize-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Forging ahead &#8211; Drought-Tolerant Maize in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From 15 to 19 September 2008, IITA played host to the 2nd Annual Review  and Planning Meeting of the Drought-Tolerant Maize in Africa (DTMA) Project at its headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria. Movers of the project, led by representatives from IITA  and CIMMYT, reviewed progress made in 2008, shared insights  and drew up workplans for the following year. They were joined by the Project Advisory Board, national partners  and collaborators from private seed companies  and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hartmann, Director General of IITA, officially opened the meeting  and welcomed the participants to the institute. He cited the DTMA Project for its achievements during the past year, saying that \u201cThe DTMA Project team represents a good balance in expertise which, combined with the maize drought tolerance technology, has a great potential in reaching 30 to 40 million people. And I am going to be one of those waiting for the DTMA technology!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe DTMA Project needs to focus on local production, especially with the emerging twin challenges of climate change  and the energy crisis. We also need to let other players own the process to ensure sustainability; thus we need an exit strategy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marianne B\u00e4nziger, CIMMYT Global Maize Program Director remarked, \u201cThere is tremendous power in Africa \u2013 the creativity of its researchers, the large number of newly emerging seed companies  and farmers, who yearn to make their lives better. We need to tap into this power if we want to generate impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She commended the various DTMA Project teams, national  and international, for the significant progress made during 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the achievements highlighted during the meeting were the development, dissemination  and targeting of new drought-tolerant varieties as well as building the capacity of project collaborators. For example, the DTMA Project established large-scale drought screening sites in Kiboko, Kenya  and Ikene, Nigeria, in which the first crop of maize under managed stress has been grown. Such activities are envisioned to help increase the availability of drought-tolerant maize varieties in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During 2008, DTMA provided training in state-of the-art maize breeding  and variety release approaches, technology adoption studies  and seed business management. Scientists from IITA, CIMMYT, national partners  and established seed companies worked closely together in designing  and running the courses much to the satisfaction of course participants. Programs were also offered which were designed to support visiting scientists, graduate  and post-graduate students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To motivate  and move breeders towards data-driven breeding programs, the DTMA Project developed  and is promoting new maize data management tools such as the International Maize Information System (IMIS)  and Fieldbook &#8211; both freely available from the DTMA Web site (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cimmyt.org\/dtma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.cimmyt.org\/dtma<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201dThe DTMA Project provides opportunities in the form of germplasm, varieties, breeder seeds  and trained personnel,\u201d Project Leader Wilfred Mwangi told participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Discussions were held along thematic  and regional lines \u2013 Eastern, Western  and Southern Africa. Participants compared experiences  and challenges,  and proposed strategies based on these to move the DTMA Project forward. Topics focused on diverse aspects of variety development, testing  and release, technology dissemination, breeder  and foundation seed production,  and production  and marketing of certified seed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne size does not fit all\u201d was one of the major conclusions from the meeting. Africa is diverse  and the various in-country teams will have to carefully target their investments to mission-critical bottlenecks  and effective scale-up strategies in the seed value chain. The teams tackled this challenge by beginning to develop seed  and impact road maps, leaving no doubt that the impact targets of DTMA Project will be achieved.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From 15 to 19 September 2008, IITA played host to the 2nd Annual Review and Planning Meeting of the Drought-Tolerant Maize in Africa (DTMA) Project at its headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":12893,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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