Achieving Sustainable Cultivation of Maize ─ From Improved Varieties to Local Applications

Maize is one of the most widely-grown crops in the world, both for food and livestock feed, biofuels and other uses. Whilst it is cultivated intensively in developed countries such as the US, it is also a staple food for developing countries in Africa, S. Asia and Latin America, particularly in terms of calorie intake. It has been estimated that maize yields need to increase by 60% by 2050 in the context of increasing competition for land, water, energy and labour. Maize production is currently held back by significant crop losses due to pests, diseases, inadequate storage and more extreme weather related to climate change. Research needs to focus on supporting more productive, sustainable and nutritionally-valuable maize cultivation, particularly for smallholders in the developing world. Drawing on the expertise of leading experts from around the world, the two volumes in this collection review ways of achieving these objectives at each step in the maize value chain, from breeding through to harvest. As the need for more interdisciplinary and collaborative research increases, the collection will be a standard reference for the maize science community by both summarising key research tends in each topic and putting them in the broader context of developments in maize cultivation as a whole.