Plant breeding successes in African rural development.
| dc.creator | Ortíz, R. | |
| dc.date | 2003-04-02 | |
| dc.date | 2020-03-12T10:06:16Z | |
| dc.date | 2020-03-12T10:06:16Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-06-27T16:00:13Z | |
| dc.description | This article reviews improvements in important southern African food crops, and it describes the social and economic effects of those improved crops. Author Rodomiro Ortiz, the acting Deputy-Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), says that the development and distribution of high-yielding cassava cultivars led to a 50 percent increase in average yield and a 10 percent increase in per capita output throughout Africa. Meanwhile, Ortiz says that improved maize cultivars led to about a 45 percent increase in on-farm yield gains in western and central Africa. Ortiz contends that 100 million more people in sub-Saharan Africa are able to meet their daily food requirements because of IITA-led research-for-development efforts in cassava and maize. However, Ortiz asserts that the full impact of crop improvement programs "can only be judged over a relatively long period." In addition to cassava and maize, Ortiz discusses several IITA-led improvements in yams, cooking bananas and plantains, cowpeas, and soybeans. | |
| dc.identifier | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/107588 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/119742 | |
| dc.language | en | |
| dc.rights | Limited Access | |
| dc.source | Ortiz, R. (2003). Plant breeding successes in African rural development. Plant Breeding News, 137, 3. | |
| dc.subject | rural development | |
| dc.subject | plant breeding | |
| dc.subject | food security | |
| dc.subject | socioeconomic development | |
| dc.title | Plant breeding successes in African rural development. | |
| dc.type | Journal Article |