CIMMYT’s Southern Africa Regional Office celebrates three decades of developing new maize varieties for farmers across the region.

As the global community marks World Soil Day, African smallholder farmers are contending with low yields due to low-fertility soils prevalent in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, affecting food security for 300 million people.

CIMMYT and its partners are working to increase the productivity of maize-based farming systems to ensure food security and increase incomes.

Green manures are an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to fertilizer for many farmers in southern Africa.

CIMMYT is stepping up efforts to combat malnutrition through agricultural research and the release of orange maize varieties.

Though its name implies science fiction, Skywalker’s results have been incredibly real. A small, unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with remote sensing devices, Skywalker flies over maize fields collecting images and data. It is able to measure several hundred plots in one take. Spectral reflectance and thermal imagery cameras on its wings allow scientists to conduct non-destructive screening of plant physiological properties such as crop growth and water use, at enough resolution to obtain information at plot level.