Sixth Stakeholders Meeting: Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA II) Project

Abstract

The Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project is a joint venture between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), with financial support from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) and the Rockefeller Foundation (RF). The project is a response to the need to feed Africa’s rapidly increasing population by reducing the damage caused by the continent’s major insect pest of maize, the stem borer. IRMA is being implemented initially in Kenya, but the results and experiences gained through the project will be made available to other African countries. The overarching goals of the project are to develop insect resistant maize varieties for the major Kenyan maize-growing environments, and to establish procedures to provide insect resistant maize to resource-poor farmers in Kenya. During the implementation of the IRMA project, relevant technologies will be transferred to KARI and continuously evaluated. For effectiveness and efficiency in its functions, the IRMA Project phase II has ten themes as listed below: 1. Bt maize event analysis, Bt source line development, and human health safety assessment. 2. Development of conventional and Bt products, and compositional analysis. 3. Environmental impact assessment. 4. Insect resistance management and contingency plans. 5. Regulatory Issues. 6. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and technology licensing. 7. Seed Production. 8. Market assessment and analysis. 9. Economic impact assessment. 10. Communication / promotion, training & Administration Research activities in the IRMA project started in August 1999, and the project was publicly launched at the first Stakeholders Meeting, held in March 2000. Review and Planning meetings and Steering Committee meetings have been held annually, and six stakeholder meetings have been held once every year during the course of the project. These meetings enable all involved to be informed of progress and to contribute to the direction the project should take. All of these meetings as well as progress are well documented in publications and a quarterly newsletter, which allows the lessons and experiences gained in Kenya to be shared with other African countries