Download - Maize

Key milestones
2011: Maize‐based system and poverty profiles characterized and constraints mapped using existing
information and community surveys.
2011: Promising technologies identified and links established with other institutions with crucial
research capacity for complementary crops, trees, or livestock, resulting in an inter‐disciplinary,
inter‐institutional research for development team.
2012: Representative benchmark sites for specific agro‐ecologies within maize farming system
identified and established (6–10 per farming system). Farmer‐participatory research trials
implemented with a distinct number of integrated technology and innovation options—
including improved varieties, conservation agriculture practices, crop rotations, crop
diversification, and other variations of farmer resource allocation.
2012: Baseline surveys started in communities, households, and markets around research hubs, and
in selected areas where no interventions are taking place.
2013: Baseline data analyzed and limitations to system productivity, including value chains of the
principal enterprises, documented for each of the target productions systems in the hubs.
2013: Ex‐ante analysis of economic profitability, poverty reduction, and sustainability gains from
tested and potential interventions assessed.
2014: Initial results from integrated technologies and CA‐based innovation systems tested in
consultation with farmers (2011–13), and opportunities for improvement, intensification, and
diversification incorporated into participatory on‐farm research programs. Outside
development partners exposed to ongoing research, and scale‐out opportunities discussed.
2014: Crop/soil simulation models validated across several hubs. Optimal enterprise mixes for
sustainable intensification, risk reduction, and inclusive income growth identified for on‐farm
testing.
2015: Strategies for enhancing farmer access to scalable technologies and enterprise options
developed and tested, including ICT‐enabled information centers.
2016: Decision guides for effectively transmitting and scaling out profitable and more sustainable
options developed, and mechanisms for accelerated diffusion to large numbers of farmers
implemented.
2016: Early adoption studies conducted in selected hubs, on‐ and off‐site impacts of integrated
innovations on food security, income growth, gender equity, and sustainability evaluated, and
results shared with partners.
2014‐16: Partner efforts to scale out successful interventions through public–private partnerships,
NGOs, change agents and governments facilitated in all hubs.
Linkages with other SIs
SI 2 shall have strong linkages with (a) SI 1 with regard to geo‐spatial information on poverty and
socioeconomic profiles in target environments, as well as knowledge on livelihood strategies and
sources of income growth in different maize‐based systems; (b) SI 3 in relation to decision guides, bestbet
technologies, and CA practices; and (c) SIs 4 and 5 for identification of varieties that are best suited
under different agronomic situations and management practices.
What's new in this initiative?
The key innovation and guiding principle for SI 2 is the integration of best‐bet technological options and
institutional innovations to address multiple constraints that lock smallholder farmers into a nexus of
poverty and land degradation—a threat to the livelihoods of both current and future generations. The
pluralistic approach goes beyond addressing constraints in maize production and aims to tackle system‐
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