The African Agricultural Technology Foundation has entered a public-private partnership to develop drought-tolerant maize varieties in four different African countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa. The partnership, named water efficient maize for Africa (WEMA), was created to respond to the devastating effects of drought which frequently cause havoc on crops, food resources, poverty and hunger within the region.

The partners will use market-assisted breeding and biotechnology to develop African maize varieties with long-term objectives of making drought-tolerant maize available, royalty-free, to African small-scale farmers. These varieties, their benefits and safety, will be assessed by national authorities with reference to individual country regulatory requirements.

"This partnership fits well with the AATF mandate of facilitating innovative public- private partnerships that bring smallholders in Africa the tools needed to increase productivity for better food and income," commented Mpoko Bokanga, executive director of AATF.

AATF will partner with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the agricultural giant, Monsanto, as well as national agricultural systems within the participating countries. The new drought-tolerant technologies have already been licensed, free of charge, to AATF for development, testing and distribution to African seed companies, so they can be utilised by smallholders.

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The project received a contribution of $47 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and the Howard G Buffett Foundation. It has two objectives: developing drought-tolerant maize to increase food security in the region and educating the region, by involving local public and private institutions so that they develop the capacity and experience in crop breeding, biotechnology and biosafety for future use. 

The contributions from the different partners, during the five years, will comprise of CIMMYT providing conventionally developed drought-tolerant high-yielding maize varieties that have adapted to regional conditions as well as providing expertise in conventional breeding and testing for drought tolerance. Monsanto will provide its proprietary germplasm, advanced breeding tools and expertise, and access to its collaborative developments with BASF in the form of drought-tolerant transgenes. Other national institutions and bodies, such as national agricultural research systems, farmer groups, and seed companies, will contribute their expertise in breeding and regulatory issues, and will help implement procedures and governance, testing, germplasm evaluation, seed production and distribution.

The collaboration expects maize products developed over ten years to increase yields by 20% to 35% under moderate drought, in comparison to current varieties. It estimates that this would translate into two million additional tons of food during drought periods in these countries.

The first conventional varieties will only be available after six to seven years of research and development. And the transgenic hybrids may be available in ten years time.

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