TAN 250 forms ear under severe drought
Maize variety TAN 250 under conditions of severe drought, showing some limited grain production. The plant is extremely stunted and the ear is close to the ground. Most maize varieties would not produce ears in such conditions, but as long as TAN 250 gets water at critical stages (germination and flowering) it will divert resources to ear formation rather than leaves or stalk and will yield something.
TAN 250 is one of two improved drought tolerant varieties recently developed and registered for sale in Tanzania, through CIMMYT's Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project. They represent years of fruitful collaboration between CIMMYT and Tanseed International Limited, a Tanzanian seed company. TAN 250 and TAN 254 are based on ZM 401 and ZM 721, varieties selected for tolerance to drought and low soil fertility conditions by CIMMYT at Chiredzi, Zimbabwe.
For more about the collaboration between Tanseed and CIMMYT, see CIMMYT's June 2009 e-news story "No maize, no life!" available online at: www.cimmyt.org/en/about-us/media-resources/newsletter/pre....
For more about DTMA see: dtma.cimmyt.org/.
Photo credit: Anne Wangalachi/CIMMYT.
TAN 250 forms ear under severe drought
Maize variety TAN 250 under conditions of severe drought, showing some limited grain production. The plant is extremely stunted and the ear is close to the ground. Most maize varieties would not produce ears in such conditions, but as long as TAN 250 gets water at critical stages (germination and flowering) it will divert resources to ear formation rather than leaves or stalk and will yield something.
TAN 250 is one of two improved drought tolerant varieties recently developed and registered for sale in Tanzania, through CIMMYT's Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project. They represent years of fruitful collaboration between CIMMYT and Tanseed International Limited, a Tanzanian seed company. TAN 250 and TAN 254 are based on ZM 401 and ZM 721, varieties selected for tolerance to drought and low soil fertility conditions by CIMMYT at Chiredzi, Zimbabwe.
For more about the collaboration between Tanseed and CIMMYT, see CIMMYT's June 2009 e-news story "No maize, no life!" available online at: www.cimmyt.org/en/about-us/media-resources/newsletter/pre....
For more about DTMA see: dtma.cimmyt.org/.
Photo credit: Anne Wangalachi/CIMMYT.