Drought stress and associated insect damage pose significant threats to the food security and health of over 300 million Africans who depend on maize as a major food source. Recurrent drought events, worsened by climate change, have caused 17-25% yield loss of maize in Africa annually; these are exacerbated by the effects of insect and pest infestation, especially those triggered by dry conditions.
In Kenya alone, an average of 13 percent or 400,000 tons of maize is lost to a type of pest called stem borers, which is equivalent to the annual maize imports, valued at USD 90m. Another type of insect, the Fall Army Worm, meanwhile, could potentially destroy as much as 20m tons of maize annually globally, enough to feed 100m people.
This underscores the urgent need to tackle the climate emergency and support farmers with crops that are resistant to these new challenges. One such crop is a new strain of maize known as TELA maize.
TELA Maize was first initially bred by genomics-assisted breeding, and later bioengineered to be more pest and climate resilient in a phasic process to improve genetic gain. It has just marked its first harvest in Nigeria, having been officially launched in June 2024. The maize is being rolled out in other countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mozambique. It tolerates moderate moisture stress, needs less pesticide input, and transforms yields from 3 tons per hectare to around 9 tons under best agronomic practices on smallholder farmers’ fields.
What can we learn from the rollout of TELA Maize?
Community Engagement and Farmer-Led Approaches
Africa has long been constrained by lack of mechanisms for technology transfer to the farms where new technology is most needed. Poor rural networks with limited connectivity to research centers impede interaction between technology developers and users. AATF, a technology transfer organization, adopted a co-creation process involving farmers in the selection of technologies that connect to their specific challenges.
The consultation process typically generated questions of interest raised by farmers, leading to further desktop research and surveys by AATF to generate data or more evidence to finally determine the most preferable technologies for farmers through a validation workshop. Once the technology was selected, AATF engaged the farmers and actors in the development process to select the best products to ensure chances for high adoption. Farmers and seed companies were then engaged in confined field trials.
Another key part of our farmer-led approach is the need to make new seeds affordable for farmers. AATF’s model for the transfer of seed-based technologies includes: (i) demonstrations so farmers can select varieties alongside community-based organizations (ii) use of royalty-free humanitarian-use licenses to small- and medium-sized seed companies; (iii) collaboration with early-generation seed enterprises for the production of foundation seeds; and (iv) development of an account management system, involving technical backstopping on seed production and business support for licensed SME seed companies.
The Role of International Support and Collaboration
Above all, TELA maize represents the results of international, cross-sector collaboration. Its development was facilitated by the public-private partnership (PPP) model involving international donors (Gates Foundation, partnering with USAID), a multi-national private entity (Bayer), international agricultural systems (CIMMYT), national systems, non-governmental international organizations, national agencies and other stakeholders (farmers, seed companies etc) with distinct roles and responsibilities.
This made it one of the biggest PPP’s in agricultural biotech transfer efforts ever assembled on the continent, and demonstrates that with good funding, complementary partnerships, and a proper enabling environment – the benefits of science can be brought to the doorstep of farmers.
The success of this approach is evident in the results; first-year commercialization results in Nigeria showed that farmers who planted TELA hybrids had yield advantages of 88% and earned 137% higher net revenue. Socio-economic impact studies elsewhere showed that TELA maize had significant and positive impact on maize productivity and income by 33–61% among smallholder farmers.
We hope that the impact being generated through TELA will create a positive perception for the integration of biotechnology into the agriculture sector, and a better enabling environment backed by apt policies that will spiral biotech development and the next generation of superior biotech crops in Africa.
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