IRD CIMMYT: the apomixis project -- a revolution in seed technology sows new hope in farmers' fields

Abstract

Poor and subsistence farmers, lacking hybrid and improved maize varieties, struggle daily to eke out an existence from low yielding plants that offer little resistance to destructive insects and diseases. In many of the world's poorest nations, less than 10% of the maize land is planted to hybrids, in large part because farmers cannot either obtain or afford seed on an annual basis. In response, CIMMYT and IRD have mounted a concerted effort to understand and transfer apomictic traits to maize-an advance that could forever change the development and use of improved varieties in some of the world's neediest regions