Hybrid seeds could help Africa double its maize yields

Johannesburg - DuPont’s Pioneer unit, the biggest supplier of hybrid maize seed in Africa, said farmers of the grain on the continent could more than double productivity over the next few decades if they switched to hybrid seed.

The continent currently has about 35 million hectares planted with maize, yielding under two metric tonnes per hectare, Prabdeep Bajwa, the African regional business director for Pioneer, said in an interview in Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office on August 5.

Productivity could rise to an average of between 5 and 7 tonnes per hectare if farmers used the right seed, he said. The amount of land under maize is unlikely to increase, he said.

“We see great opportunity to bring that maize seed, tested locally, adopted locally, and just tremendous opportunity to improve productivity,” he said.

Africa as a whole produced 77.6 million tonnes of maize in 2014, data on the Food and Agriculture Organisation website shows.

Over the past decade the average yield on South African maize farms, which include the most advanced in Africa, has ranged between 2.53 tonnes and 4.84 tonnes per hectare, according to the South African Grain Information Service.

While genetically modified seed is used in South Africa, it’s banned by countries on the rest of the continent.

Yields in the US, the world’s biggest maize producer, average about 7 tonnes per hectare, while they are about 5.4 tonnes in Western Europe, Bajwa said.

Pioneer bought a controlling stake in South Africa’s closely held Pannar Seed in 2013, and markets the seeds under both brands.