On 14 November 2011 Thokozile Ndlela and Charles Mutimaamba of Zimbabwe’s Crop Breeding Institute received the DTMA Breeding Team Award for southern Africa. It was presented by Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT Zimbabwe Maize Breeder, at a management meeting of the Department of Research and Specialist Services of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development of the Government of Zimbabwe, at their head office in Harare. The award consisted of USD 3000 and a silver tray that the winners will be able to display until it is reawarded next year.
“We truly appreciate this award, because it recognizes the efforts of all our team and shows our commitment to DTMA,” said Charles Mutimaamba. This is the third consecutive year that the Crop Breeding Institute has won the award in recognition of their outstanding achievements in maize breeding for drought tolerance. The team has consistently maintained a pedigree breeding program at Harare Research Station, using local and CIMMYT germplasm, and has been testing improved hybrids at two drought screening locations in southern Zimbabwe. The Crop Breeding Institute has also regularly submitted hybrids into the CIMMYT regional trials for widespread testing. Two drought tolerant hybrids, ZS263 and ZS265, were recently released and are in the process of seed scaleup with local seed companies.
Capacity development