The Grass that Feeds Humankind

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The Grass that Feeds Humankind

• By
• Manuel Corro

AGED 4713 Fall 2002
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(No Transcript)
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Corn Origins and Dispersal to the World
Europe
5000 B.C
Asia
Africa
1500 B.C
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Maize History

• Maize is a gigantic domesticated grass Zea mays
  ssp. mays of tropical Mexican origin.
• Cultivation of maize and the elaboration of its
  food products are inextricably bound with the
  rise of pre-Colombian Mesoamerican civilizations.
  
• Due to its adaptability and productivity the
  culture of maize spread rapidly around the globe
• Spaniards and other Europeans exported the plant
  from the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.
• Maize is currently produced in most countries of
  the world and is the third most planted field
  crop (after wheat and rice).

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Scientific Classification

• Family Gramineae
• Genus Zea
• SpeciesMays
• There are more than 14 000 varieties of corn.
• CIMMYT germplasm bank has 10965 accessions, one
  third are Mexican.
• INIFAP has an additional 570 accessions

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Morphology of Maize
See the handout
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Maize Grain Types

• International market classified maize in terms
  of color and hardness

• Color
• 85 yellow-grained
• 10-12 white - grained
• lt10 red-, purple-, black- grained material
• Hardness
• 80 dent or semident material
• 15 flint or semiflint material
• 5 floury maize (Andean zone) and
• Waxy maize from China

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CIMMYT recognizes 5 major production environments

• Lowland tropics
• Subtropics
• Mid-altitude tropical
• Tropical highlands
• Temperate zone

• Major regions are known as megaenvironments,
  defined in terms of climatic factors
• Mean temperature during growing season
• Elevation above sea level
• Rainfall
• Day length

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Distribution of Maize Production Environments,
early 1990s
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Distribution of World Maize Production
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• The corn smut is a parasitic fungus that attacks
  the ears, stalks, and tassels of corn.
• Smut galls or swellings are produced, which are
  used as food in some areas of Mexico, Central and
  South America
• Corn smut in Mexico is known as
  Huitlacoche

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How Important Could the Corn Be in Developing
Countries

• Without corn millions of people would starve
• Millions of small farmers grow corn all over the
  world

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Corn Consumption per capita and corn use in Latin
America, 1998
210 kg
117 kg
62 kg
189.4 kg
Source www.cimmyt.org
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Corn Research
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Growth in maize yields, by region, 1961-97(
average annual growth)
Source CIMMYT 1999
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Corn production systems in developing countries

• Small Farmers lt 20 ha
• Mixed Farming
• Self consumption
• Low technology
• Open polinization varieties (OPVs)
• No hybrids

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How important could the corn be in Mexico?

• 70 of grain production
• 45 of rainfed land and 6 of irrigated land.
• 2.7 millions corn growers (68 of total
  population employed in agriculture).
• Corn yield varies from 1.4 Tons/ha to 5 tons /ha
  (average2.4 tons/ha)
• 20 million metric tons/year
• Small size of land - small yield /ha, small
  income
• White corn the most important

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Mexican food based on maize

• Dough (masa)
• tamales (wrapped with husk or plantain leaf)
• with any kind of meat inside prepared with some
  spices
• Tortilla
• Enchiladas
• Quesadillas
• Tacos
• Tostadas
• Grain
• Pozole (hominy soup) with pork and/or chicken
  meat
• Pozol (beverage southern Mexico)
• Pinole ( maize flour to prepare other dishes)

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How important could the corn be in the U.S.?

• 24 of cropland
• 72, 604, 000 acres
• 45 of crop production
• 20 Billions worth
• 40 of world corn production
• 70 of world exports

Source www.ncga.com
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Corn Usage in U.S., 1999
Consumption per capita 133.kg

• Corn flakes
• soda sweetened w/corn syrup
• corn-fed beef
• corn-fed Chicken
• Pet food

Source www.ncga.com
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WHAT CAN YOU GET FROM A BUSHEL OF CORN?

• 32 pounds of corn starch or
• 33 pounds of corn sweetener or
• 2.5 gallons of ethanol PLUS
• 1.6 pounds of corn oil
• 11.4 pounds of 21 protein gluten feed
• 3 pounds of 60 gluten meal

• One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400
  cans of soda.

Source www.ncga.com
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WHAT CAN YOU GET FROM A BUSHEL OF CORN?

• A bushel of corn fed to livestock produces
• 5.6 pounds of retail beef or
• 13 pounds of retail pork or
• 19.6 pounds of chicken or
• 28 pounds of catfish.

Source www.ncga.com
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World supply

• Six nations
• USA, China, Brazil, Mexico, France, and Argentina
  produce 75 of the world's maize supply

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World Corn Production 2000-2001
FAS.USDA, October 2000
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Major Corn producing states

• 82 of total production in US is within
  6 states
• Iowa
• Illinois
• Nebraska
• Minnesota
• Indiana
• Ohio
• Iowa leads the group with 22 of total national
  production which is 8.5 of total world
  production,

Source The maize page Iowa State U.
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World corn imports
Source www.ncga.com
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World Issues about Corn

• Trade
• Biotechnology
• Biodiversity

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Biotechnology

• Crop Science Society of America defines
  biotechnology research as
• The development of products requiring engineering
  technologies or using technologies such as
  recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
  techniques for the modification and improvement
  of biological systems

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Biotechnology and Maize

• Reasons for applying biotech on maize
• Economic importance
• Commercial maize growers use hybrids
• Maize consumed in most of industrialized
  countries with sophisticated research systems
• Transposons unusual feature of maize
• Jumping genes that have the ability to move from
  one location to another within the genome,
  causing mutations.

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Applications of biotechnology to maize breeding

• Molecular genetics
• identify one or more genes that confer a desired
  characteristics on maize plants and use
  molecular markers to identify in successive
  generations of plants that possess the gene or
  genes of interest
• Genetic Engineering
• inserting into maize plants and obtain expression
  of alien genes these genes may be obtained from
  other organisms (plants or animals)

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Applications of Molecular genetics

• Fingerprints identify DNA
• identifying genotypes
• Monitoring genetic diversity in breeding
  materials
• Efficient management of genetic resources
• Quantitative trait locus mapping (QTL)
• Comparative mapping
• Marker-assisted selection

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Applications of Genetic Engineering

• Transgenic maize,
• trait genes and gene regulators
• Pest-resistance maize
• Insertion of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) genes
• Herbicide-resistance maize

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Any questions ?