NAIROBI, Kenya, 17 February 2010 – At a briefing for local journalists, a group of public and private agriculture organizations today announced an alliance that will improve food security and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa by creating and sharing new maize varieties that use fertilizer more efficiently and help smallholder farmers get higher yields, even where soils are poor and little commercial fertilizer is used.
The collaboration, known as Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), will be led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded with USD 19.5 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID. The project's other partners, the DuPont Business, Pioneer Hi-Bred; the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI); and the South African Agricultural Research Council (ARC), are also providing significant in-kind contributions including staff, infrastructure, seed, traits, technology, training, and know-how.
