The focus of this chapter is threefold: (i) to describe the conservation agriculture (CA) system used by Total LandCare (TLC) with smallholder farmers in Malawi; (ii) to compare maize and groundnut yields under CA with conventional ridge tillage (CRT) in different parts of Malawi; and (iii) to...

This chapter focuses on the historical context and exploratory analysis of the genetic improvement of the crops (maize, wheat and rice, among others) in the 1998 initiative by the Diffusion and Impact of Improved Varieties in Africa (DIIVA) project. The importance of the establishment of a reliable ...

This chapter focuses on the assessment of the cultivar output, adoption and change for cassava, cowpea, soyabean and yam for Africa south of Sahara and maize improvement in West and Central Africa. The evaluation of the performance of genetic improvement programmes in these crops are also discussed.

This chapter focuses on the assessment of the performance of maize and wheat crop improvement in East and Southern Africa. Information on cultivar output and adoption in countries in East and Southern Africa is also presented.

In the past four decades, more than 40 improved maize varieties, including hybrids and open-pollinated varieties, have been developed and released in Ethiopia by the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre. Most...

This chapter focuses on the improved cultivar generation of various crops (maize, cassava, rice, bean, potato, cowpea, wheat, soyabean, sweet potato, yam, sorghum, groundnut, banana, chickpea, pigeon pea, barley, pearl millet, faba bean, lentil and pea) in Africa South of the Sahara. Information of ...

This chapter focuses on the adoption and turnover of cultivars of crops, such as soyabean, maize, pigeon pea, wheat, cassava, rice, potato, barley, yam, groundnut, bean, sorghum, cowpea, pearl millet, chickpea, faba bean, lentil, sweet potato, banana and pea, in Africa South of Sahara. The changes...

Maize is the staple food in Malawi where it is mainly cultivated by smallholder farmers under rainfed conditions. Due to increasing climatic uncertainty and declining soil fertility, crop failures often result in shortages affecting up to 1.6 million people every year. An estimated 47% of the...

The evolution of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize by the African stem borer, Busseola fusca, in South Africa highlighted the importance of the development of appropriate integrated resistance management (IRM) strategies for stem borers in Africa. Landscape heterogeneity is...

This chapter examines critically the response of the agricultural sector to the various policies and programmes, with specific reference to farm-level productivity, exemplified primarily by the major food crop in the country (maize). Available statistics from the various analyses show that, even...