De Groote Hugo, Omondi Lumumba Brian
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Nairobi, Kenya.
College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
Glob Food Sec. 2023 Mar;36:100676. doi: 10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100676.
Agricultural technology is key to food security in SSA, but new maize varieties are not able to replace the old, trusted ones. This study uses data from four representative household surveys conducted in Kenya over 21 years, to show that younger maize varieties have a clear, although limited, effect on yield (4 kg/ha/year controlling for fertilizer) and food security. Unfortunately, this is not sufficient to entice farmers to adopt them, and adoption rates have barely increased despite the market liberalization that brought many private seed companies and their varieties in the market, as the parastatal Kenya Seed Company continues to dominate the market. As a result, in combination with low fertilizer use, yields have stagnated for the last three decennia.
农业技术是撒哈拉以南非洲地区粮食安全的关键，但新的玉米品种无法取代那些老旧且值得信赖的品种。本研究使用了在肯尼亚21年间进行的四项代表性家庭调查的数据，结果表明，较新的玉米品种对产量（在控制肥料使用的情况下为每年每公顷4公斤）和粮食安全有明显但有限的影响。不幸的是，这不足以吸引农民采用这些新品种，尽管市场自由化带来了许多私营种子公司及其品种进入市场，但由于半官方的肯尼亚种子公司继续主导市场，采用率几乎没有提高。因此，再加上肥料使用量低，过去三十年里产量一直停滞不前。
