'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 RECENT PROGRESS IN BREEDING FOR DROUGHT AND NITROGEN STRESS TOLERANCE IN MAIZE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA M. BÄNZIGER, A.O. DIALLO, G.O. EDMEADES CIMMYT, P.O. Box MP163, Harare, Zimbabwe

After more than ten years of strategic research in Mexico, CIMMYT has initiated breeding programs in southern and eastern Africa targeting the development of adapted maize cultivars that are tolerant to the two priority stresses affecting resource-poor farmers’ fields, namely drought and nitrogen stress. The programs are based on selecting segregating germplasm at an early breeding stage, using managed stress conditions, secondary traits, and improved statistical design and analysis techniques. Broad adaptation is achieved by combining results obtained under managed stress conditions with results from unstressed evaluations. This presentation gives a summary of the methodology used and presents results demonstrating significant breeding progress. We also compare this breeding approach with other breeding strategies that have been used to target abiotic stress environments.