Maize
Genetics Cooperation Newsletter 80. 2006.
Kyungpook National University and
the International Corn Foundation
The International Agricultural Research Institute of Kyungpook National University (KNU) in Daegu and the International Corn Foundation (ICF) in Seoul, South Korea have conducted the following research activities on maize in South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, East Timor, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Benin, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
In South Korea, the team has developed sticky waxy corn and super-sweet corn for local consumption. Korean people prefer waxy more than super-sweet corn, probably because of its origin in the Far East. In 2005, four waxy and two super-sweet (sh2) hybrids (single crosses) were registered by KNU and marketed in South Korea. In North Korea, a total of 35,000 crosses were tested throughout North Korea from 1998 to 2002. The collaborative team between South and North Korea selected 27 hybrids. On-farm testing at the Cooperative Farms was conducted for three years. Selected outstanding hybrids will be used for F1 seed production in 2006 for a large-scale commercial cultivation in 2007. In addition to the joint-breeding program, Suwon 19 hybrid, developed by the senior author in South Korea in 1976 as the first single cross hybrid corn in Asia, has been widely grown in North Korea commercially. The total production of food in North Korea has been increased from 1.5 million tons (1997) to 4.5 million tons (2005). Corn is the staple food for 70 percent of the population of North Korea.
In addition, the ICF/KNU program has helped to develop locally adapted corn cultivars (open-pollinated) in Ben Tre Province in Vietnam, Cambodia (for downy mildew resistance), Laos and Nepal (open-pollinated and hybrid development), Mongolia (OP yellow for livestock and Vitamin A supplemented as food), East Timor (top crosses with downy mildew resistance). The program has selected outstanding and stable OP cultivars for Ben Tre Province where the Vietnam War was the most severe. Rice, coconut and sugar cane are the main crops, and corn is being developed for feed production and green corn. A new crop of corn shall be rotated with the rice crop.
In Africa, the SAFGRAD/KNU program, with support from the Korea International Cooperation Agencies (KOICA) and the Africa Union, has conducted on-farm demonstration trials of Striga + streak virus tolerant maize cultivars in eight countries in West and Central Africa. The program has tested IITA and Cameroon national program developed STR (Striga tolerance and resistance) cultivars (mostly OPVs) with legume crops. The STR + legume package is considered one of the sustainable packages for a long-lasting solution in combating the worst parasite, the Striga species, in Africa. The team found that sorghum is the major host for seed production of Striga species in Africa. STR materials are tolerant to both Striga hermonthica and S. asiatica. Although IITA, in collaboration with national programs and CIMMYT, solved maize streak virus (MSV) problems by 1986, when the IITA maize team received the CGIAR King Baudouin Agricultural Award for producing 100 streak resistant (SR) maize cultivars (OPVs and hybrids), still farmers in some countries of the East and Southern Africa regions (including Namibia, Botswana, and Kenya, etc.) have suffered MSV epidemics that cause a significant reduction in maize yield. The team found that farmers in many countries in Africa sow the long rainy season cultivars of maize during the short rainy season (with only two months of rain). The maize breeding technology employed by the team is only tolerance that is based on the co-survival principle, without any chemical spray. We do not select single gene resistance because it�s against the co-survival principle between pests and hosts in nature. Based on 40 years of corn breeding experience in the developing world and the USA, the senior author asserts that host-plant resistance with QTL genes can be the most sustainable technology and the one most respectful of nature. The recent outbreaks of bird flu and several other environmental hazards might be caused by ignoring the co-survival tolerance principle. We must respect nature.
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