Download - Maize

Target beneficiaries
The target beneficiaries of MAIZE are resource‐poor farmers and consumers in low‐ and middle‐income
countries for whom maize is a preferred crop or food, with focus on the disadvantaged.
In order to be more effective and focused, MAIZE will particularly target two types of farmers and their
service providers (such as researchers, technology and information providers and policy makers):
Target Group 1: Smallholders in stress‐prone environments with poor market access;
Target Group 2: Market‐oriented, technology‐constrained smallholders in more benign
environments.
These two target groups live in farming systems that occupy approximately 64% of all maize by area in
the developing world and are home to 1.2 billion of the poor and 126 million malnourished children—
nearly seven‐tenths of the world's total (Table 1). The other 36% of the maize area is cropped by
wealthier, commercially oriented farmers, or smallholders that live interspersed in areas of large
commercial farming and benefit from private sector investment in these areas.
The two target groups were identified systematically by taking all the rainfed farming systems in the
tropics and sub‐tropics that include at least 1 million hectares of maize (Dixon et al. 2001) and where the
majority of farmers are smallholders. “Maize‐dependent poor”—defined as the number of poor
depending on an area equivalent of 25% maize, as well as their exposure to drought stress in maize—
were identified by superimposing analyses of Hyman et al. (2008) and others (Annex 1). The following
section describes in more detail each of these groups. Data for them are summarized from Annex 1 in
the top half of Table 1, including a list of the farming systems and regions in which they live. The lower
half of Table 1 identifies the main objectives relevant to the two target groups in each of the Strategic
Initiatives.
Target Group 1: Smallholders in stress‐prone environments with poor market access
Farmers in stress‐prone or outlying areas—often both go together—are among the poorest, with low
purchasing power, frequent food deficits, and the most severe malnutrition in children. Annual
production fluctuates through drought and other stress factors, while under‐developed markets
contribute to high price variation and food and income insecurity. There are an estimated 640 million
two‐dollar‐a‐day poor people in the farming systems comprising this target group; an estimated 275
million of these are maize‐dependent, and they include also at least 72 million stunted children. The
farming systems are located in South Asia, sub‐Saharan Africa, and Latin America & the Caribbean. Many
are in the poorest countries that have weak national research systems and the least‐developed private
sector.
Target Group 1 needs comprehensive solutions that link maize‐based interventions with those for
accompanying crops and livestock, increase the productivity and resilience of the farming systems, and
attempt to link farmers to viable markets for inputs and surplus products. Relevant interventions for this
target group include stress‐tolerant varieties of maize and other crops that stabilize and increase
production even as climates change, as well as sustainable crop management approaches that increase
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