The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) works to develop improved maize varieties with traits that smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia need. These include tolerance to abiotic stresses such as drought and heat, and biotic stresses such as diseases and insect-pests. This infographic explains exactly how CIMMYT ensures that its improved maize seed (both hybrids and open-pollinated varieties) gets to the smallholder farmers through the public and private sector partners. This process goes from product development, product advancement, announcement of new products to the partners, product licensing to improved varietal release, seed scale-up, and deployment to the farming communities in target geographies. Feedback loops from the farmers (through on-farm trials) and from the public and private sector partners enrich our breeding teams to continuously refine the product pipelines.
For more information on our work with maize please click here.