Too much, too soon? Early-maturing maize varieties as drought escape strategy in Malawi

Article

Grewer, Uwe, Kim, Dong-Hyuk and Waha, Katharina. 2024. "Too much, too soon? Early-maturing maize varieties as drought escape strategy in Malawi." Food Policy. 129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102766
Article Title

Too much, too soon? Early-maturing maize varieties as drought escape strategy in Malawi

ERA Journal ID13528
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsGrewer, Uwe, Kim, Dong-Hyuk and Waha, Katharina
Journal TitleFood Policy
Journal Citation129
Article Number102766
Number of Pages13
Year2024
ISSN0306-9192
1873-5657
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102766
Web Address (URL)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919224001775
AbstractAdopting early-maturing maize varieties can substantially increase yield and yield stability in suitable environments. Actionable recommendations that specify where early-maturing varieties can be suitably applied are lacking across low-income countries. We found for maize in Malawi that varieties with longer maturity duration provide on average the highest yield. However, if water stress occurs, we found that its timing determines which seed variety performs best. If water stress conditions are confined to the late season, early-maturing varieties escape drought and perform better than medium- and late-maturing varieties. Instead, if water stress conditions start already from mid-season, early-maturing varieties perform worst. Our results demonstrate that the typical seasonal timing of water stress can serve as a suitable criterion for recommending where to adopt early-maturing varieties. Finally, we propose an integrated research framework that complements our econometric analysis and allows to derive actionable variety suitability recommendations at the country level.
KeywordsSeed policy; Drought; Smallholder agriculture; Technology adoption; Variety recommendations; Household survey data
Contains Sensitive ContentDoes not contain sensitive content
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020300207. Agricultural systems analysis and modelling
Byline AffiliationsCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia
University of Queensland
University of Augsburg, Germany
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