Maize is the most important cereal and most widely cultivated staple crop, playing a key food security role in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over 36 million hectares are harvested annually and more than 208 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on maize for food security and economic well-being. Current yields of maize in Sub-Saharan Africa (estimated at an average of 1.8 tonnes per hectare, and often below 1 tonne per hectare) are far below the average potential that should be achieved. Commercial farmers in similar dry-land conditions will achieve up to 10 tonnes per hectare per crop. Decoupling growth in agricultural production from forest loss is paramount; overcoming this yield deficit will go a part of the way to ensuring that the land-take requirement will be reduced.

Increasing agricultural productivity for small-holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be a perennial challenge. Governments have spent decades trying different policies, from state-controlled and subsidized input and output markets to various forms of liberalization intended to generate private sector investments in the sector, but no policy has yet provided the solution. The damaging impact of agricultural intensification as seen in Europe and North America during the last century can be avoided through the wide-scale implementation of precision agriculture, enabling the successful use of low impact biological inputs. Adoption of these practices, managed by experienced practitioners, will be important to avoid the negative effects previously experienced as a result of agricultural intensification.