This chapter reviews the evolution of maize from teosinte (the wild ancestor) to landraces (locally adapted, open-pollinated farmer varieties) to modern maize (inbreds and hybrids), and discuss changes in kernel composition (starch, protein and oil) and size during this process.

It is apparent that climate change will have great impact on the abiotic as well as biotic stresses to which crops will be exposed. The major effects of climate change will be heat and water deficit together with physical damage due to intense rainfall and perhaps associated wind. Since hormonal...

This chapter focuses on the assessment of the effectiveness of the crop improvement of sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeon pea and groundnut in India from the perspectives of inputs (scientific capacity of national programmes), outputs (released cultivars and hybrids) and outcomes (aggregate...

In the past four decades, more than 40 improved maize varieties, including hybrids and open-pollinated varieties, have been developed and released in Ethiopia by the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre. Most...

This chapter presents the strategy of the Africa Rice Centre for developing hybrid rice for Africa South of Sahara and its preliminary results. The potential of hybrid technology in increasing rice productivity and serving as a mechanism for leveraging private sector investment in rice research and ...

This chapter discusses the efforts made in the study of male sterility systems and their application in the development of hybrid varieties of various food legume crops (adzuki bean, chickpea, common bean, cowpea, faba bean, mung bean, pigeon pea and soyabean).

This chapter focuses on the importance of pollination and the use of insects, such as bees, as pollinators to increase seed yield. The various cultivar types (open-pollinated and hybrid cultivars) and the usefulness of transgenic technology and genetically modified organisms are discussed and the...

This chapter is concerned with the use of biological and non-biological technologies to improve crop production in the 20th century. During the first half of the century, increases in food production were mainly due to use of additional land and chemical inputs such as fertilizers. However, after...

Over the last 40 years several open-pollinated and hybrid maize varieties were developed for different agro-ecologies in Ethiopia. This study employed the economic surplus method for an ex-post evaluation of maize technology generation and transfer investment made in Ethiopia from 1986 to 2000. The ...