ABSTRACT
Maize, with its multitude of food, feed, and industrial uses, its high genetic yield potential, and its wide range of adaptation, will experience increasing demand in the decades ahead. Growth in maize utilization will continue to be strongest in the middle-income and newly industrialized nations where standards of living have been improving. Maize research progress has been a journey of ever-deepening knowledge about the genome. The matter of intellectual property rights, plant breeder’s rights, and plant variety protection has additional significance for maize research programs in the developing world as government research budgets shrink. Modern maize economies consume large amounts of inputs and produce large production surpluses that must be moved through organized markets. Maize extension activities in developing countries—especially involving small-scale farmers—will likely remain publicly funded activities for some time. Many maize farmers in low-income countries cultivate small landholdings, are impoverished, nearly illiterate, and subject to a poorly functioning marketing system.
