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

22the Lead Country Concept was not effective. For example, Cameroonand Ghana were lead countries in breeding while Nigeria was a leadcountry in technology transfer. Yield/ha clearly showed an improvementin Cameroon and Ghana, but not in Nigeria. On the contrary,annual gain in total production in Nigeria was outstandingly largerthan in all other countries put together (0.276 vs 0.239 million tons).Whereas the annual rate of increase in land area under maize was0.001 and 0.006 million ha in Cameroon and Ghana, it was 0.207million ha in Nigeria (see Fakorede et al. 2003). These results wouldseem to give the misleading impression that technologies developedin the lead countries were adopted more in such countries than inothers. It is common knowledge that the technologies developed inlead countries were tested on-farm in all other countries and manysuch technologies were widely adopted in the other countries (seeTable 4). Closely related to this is the problem of the relatively lowyield/ha reported for the subregion. Although the increasing trend intotal grain production in the subregion is encouraging, the trend inyield/ha is discouragingly low. Data analyzed for these two factors areonly estimates obtained by FAO in the subregion but these are thepresently available estimates. However, the results presented hereinfor the relation between CV and grain yield suggest an urgent needfor collaborators to refi ne their experimental techniques. Greater attentionshould be paid to land preparation, planting, weed control,fertilizer application, and data collection.The IARCS and the donor agencies also derived some benefi tsfrom the activities of the Network. Duplication of research efforts,especially in the face of dwindling fi nancial resrouces, has been greatlyreducted through networking with NARES. WECAMAN membercountries have collaborated very actively with both IITA and CIMMYTin conducting evaluation trials of promising varieties and breedingmaterials such as progeny trials from which experimental varieties aredeveloped. Indeed, some of these varieties are named after the NARSsite from which their parent materials were selected. Identifi cation offairly strong NARS, which have been designated lead centers, alongwith availability of screening sites for specifi c abiotic and biotic stresseshas greatly facilitated IARCs’ efforts for breeding for stress tolerance.Striga, low soil-N, and stem borers are endemic in certain locations sothat escapes are hardly possible when screening maize germplasm forresistance to the stress factors in such locations. IARCs not only haveaccess to these facilities but also have devolved some of the breedingactivities on competent NARS partners to allow the internationalscientists to concentrate on some more basic research that requiresrelatively more advanced laboratories. In addition, IARCs have trainedNARS partners to fi nalize specifi c technologies as most appropriate to