Poster prepared by Peter Setimela, Edmore Gasura, Davies Melele and Oswell Ndoro for the Africa RISING Science for Impact Workshop, Dar es Salaam, 17-19 January 2017

1. This poster is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
January 2017
We thank farmers and local partners in Africa RISING sites for their contributions to this research. We also acknowledge
the support of all donors which globally support the work of the CGIAR centers and their partners through their
contributions to the CGIAR system
Quality Protein Maize - bridging the malnutrition gap
Peter Setimela 1, Edmore Gasura2 , Davies Melele3, and Oswell Ndoro1
1CIMMYT, P.O. Box MP 163, Harare, Zimbabwe
2Department of Crop Science, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP 167, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
3ZARI, Msekera Research Station, Chipata, Zambia
Key messages
• Maize is the major staple food in Zambia with human
consumption averaging 117 kg capita-1 year-1
• Maize inherently poor in two essential amino acids: tryptophan
and lysine
• Opaque-2 gene conferring high-lysine and tryptophan offers the
hope to bridge the protein
• Only one open pollinated variety QPM Obatanpa was released in
2004
Key results
• Ten elite QPM varieties were selected from on-station trials based
on high grain yield and stability, and were found to be comparable
to the best commercial checks
• The yield genetic gains ranged from 11-40% across the two years,
suggesting effective genetic gains in QPM breeding.
• The genotype plus genotype x environment interaction (GGE)
comparison biplot based on two seasons of testing identified QPM
hybrids CZH132044Q, CZH142238Q and CZH142236Q to be stable
and high yielding.
Objectives and approach
The objective of this study was to evaluate a new generation of QPM
varieties for grain yield and stability based on the site regression
(SREG) model.
Significance and scaling potential
• Zambian smallholders can benefit substantially from QPM because
of the high rates of daily maize intake coupled with low intake of
balanced protein foods containing essential amino acids.
• Seed companies have started to multiple breeders and foundation
seed for scaling up certified seed production.
• The new QPM varieties as competitive as normal maize varieties on-
station and on-farm
Figure 2.Best QPM genotypes mean and
stability
Figure 1. Evaluation QPM varieties
Figure 3. Sale of QPM by smallholder
farmers on the road side