The maize seed industry in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The development of maize improvement and of the seed industry in Zimbabwe over the past 75 years is outlined. True breeding started in 1933, the first double hybrid was available in 1949, the first single hybrid in 1960 and the first top‐cross for marginal areas in 1963. Commercialisation of both breeding and the seed trade has been inhibited first by the Seed Maize Association's exclusive rights to government germ plasm and certified seed production, and then by government's socialist economic policies and controls. The future for maize breeding and the seed industry in Zimbabwe depends on a market‐orientated economy, the ending of the monopoly on government germ plasm, liberalisation of seed certification procedures, the updating of the Plant Breeders Rights Act and exploiting regional and not only national markets for maize seed.