Demand-Driven Technologies for Sustainable Maize ... - IITA

8fi ndings to their peers. They are an invaluable means of motivatingscientists towards professionalism as well as for promoting exchangeof information, techniques, and technologies. Intending participantsat the Workshop fi rst submit abstracts of their papers. The abstractsare reviewed and screened by a panel of three scientists. Participantswhose abstracts are selected are sponsored to the Workshop and areexpected to submit the full papers, at the latest in the Workshop. Afterthe Workshop, the papers are peer-reviewed and those accepted arepublished in the proceedings, subject to the authors having effectedthe reviewers’ suggested modifi cations.Since 1987, the Network has kept, among others, the records ofparticipants and scientifi c papers presented at the Workshops. From thedata, the proportion of NARS scientists that attended the Workshopsand the number of technical papers relative to total number presentedat the Workshop were computed from 1987 to 2001 and subjectedto regression analysis (Badu-Apraku et al. 2003).WECAMAN conducts two types of RUVTs. The two sets of trials arenormally composed of drought tolerant varieties that mature in 90–95(RUVT-Early) and 80–85 days (RUVT-Extra–early). Data obtained fromRUVTs conducted from 1987 to 2002 were used to determine therelationship between CV and grain yield as well as trends in CV overthe years. Similarly, grain yield data from the trials were plotted againstyears to determine the productivity trend over the years. Trends in theproduction of commercial seed in the Community Seed ProductionScheme of the Network member countries from 1995 to 2001 weredetermined by linear, quadratic, or both models. Similarly, FAO datafrom 1980 to 2003 were regressed on the years to determine trendsin maize productivity and production. The data were summarized forthe individual member countries to obtain an indication of trends inthe adoption of maize technologies developed by the Network.Funding and expected outcomesThe proportion of the funds from USAID allocated to research anddevelopment projects varied among years; 1996, 2002, and 2003had the largest amounts of about US $110, 000 each while 1993 hadthe smallest (Fig. 1).Apart from the unusually small funding in 1993, at least US $70,000was expended by the Network on maize research and developmentactivities each year. Additional funding of collaborative research fromthe AMS and Nippon Foundation Projects is summarized in Fig. 2.Here also, about US $60,000 to $120,000 was allocated to researchand development projects in the subregion each year. Thus a minimumof about $130,000 was available for maize research and developmentactivities by Network members each year from 1999 to 2003.