Plant breeding successes in African rural development.

Ortiz, R. (2003). Plant breeding successes in African rural development. Plant Breeding News, 137, 3.

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.