Unlocking market potential: CRI Breeding Program's targeted market segments for sustainable maize production

Ribeiro, F.P., Muungani, D., Oppong, A., Yeboah, S., Baffoe, E., Frimpong-Manso, E., Acquah, E., Yeboah, R. 2024. Unlocking market potential: CRI Breeding Program's targeted market segments for sustainable maize production. A Poster presented at the CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence WP1-WP2 Workshop, 14-18 October 2024, Harare, Zimbabwe.

The Crop Research Institute (CRI) Breeding Program aims to develop high-yielding, nutritious and climate smart maize varieties for diverse market segments. Until recently, the breeding programe had the opportunity to review market segments, refine market segments for national needs and define target product profiles for each market segment. The review was done by diverse group of stakeholders (farmers, processors, youth and gender, aggregator etc). This poster highlights our program's targeted market segments, including: (food); Smallholder farmers seeking improved yields and drought tolerance, commercial farmers requiring high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties, (animal feed); livestock and poultry industries demanding high-energy maize, (Brewery); food processors seeking specialized maize for value-added products. Our breeding program focuses on developing maize varieties with desirable traits for each segment, ensuring the following: increased productivity and food security, improved livelihoods for smallholder farmers, enhanced competitiveness for commercial farmers, sustainable maize production for industry stakeholders. A comprehensive scoring system assessed operations of the breeding program across key performance indicators. The program scored averagely good for its operational efficiency