Maize Technology Development and Transfer : A GIS Application for Research in Planning in Kenya

More than three decades of systematic research by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), have enabled the rapid development and successful transfer of maize technology in Kenya, which parallels the rapid spread of hybrid maize in the USA.

However, during this time, significant land reform and other socio-economic changes have occurred.

The Kenya Maize Data Base Project (MDBP) was established in 1992 with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), to utilize the latest technology in order to meet the challenges presented by these changes.

This book describes in detail and discusses the development and uses of this database, which uses spatial analysis to integrate data from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with the results of biological experiments, socio-economic statistics (including interviews with farmers) and agroclimatic information.

This provides a planning tool for targeting new technology to the needs of farmers, by enabling KARI to establish the extend of maize cultivation to a high degree of accuracy, characterize agroclimatic zones and further superimpose corresponding datasets. This represents an interdisciplinary effort at a national scale.

The findings presented have international implications and should be useful reading for maize agronomists, crop modellers, agricultural and development economists, extension workers and planners and should be of interest to all users of GIS.