How Does Maize Promote Food Security In Sub-Saharan Africa?

INTRODUCTION
Maize is the second most widely grown cereal crop after wheat for human consumption in many parts of the world. The importance and role played by this crop towards achieving food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) cannot be overlooked. Indeed, maize remains the most cultivated crop in Africa and contributes significantly to food and feed security (FAO 2015). In SSA, it contributes up to 51% of all the consumed calories in the diet. Actually, the nutritive value of maize way exceeds that of wheat flour and is slightly below that of rice. Most developed countries use maize as an animal feed and for the industrial production of ethanol, soaps, paints, corks, powders and pharmaceuticals, but the main use in developing countries remains
Additionally, these lines grow to an approximate height of 170cm hence easy to pollinate and have been shown to be transformable and easy to regenerate. The Kenyan inbred lines E04, T04 and A04 are commonly used parental lines for maize breeding programmes whose progeny are well adapted to Kenyan highland environments and resistant to maize streak virus. However, these Kenyan inbred lines are recalcitrant to Agrobacterium mediated transformation. The observed Recalcitrance can be attributed to many factors acting either individually or in combination during the transformation process. These include aspects such as production of certain substances by the explants which inhibit Agrobacterium growth to unfavourable media for growth of the bacteria hence subsequent lack of gene transfer (Sande et al.,
Different media have been used during the co-cultivation stage all having been modified from either Chu media, LS media or MS media (Frame et al., 2002; Ishida et al., 2007). It has been shown in sugar cane that the type of media and period of co-cultivation affects the rate of transformation (Priya et al., 2010). Ombori et al., (2013) also showed that the type and the components of media affect the rate of transformation in maize immature embryos. In maize transformation, the embryo age or physiological maturity stage affects the rate of transformation. Although these parameters have been optimised, still, the reported transformation frequencies which range from 1.4 to 8% are not good enough (Frame et al., 2006; Huang and Wei, 2005; Ombori et al., 2013). Yeast Extract Peptone (YEP) media has commonly been used to grow Agrobacterium and has been shown to support its growth better than any other medium (Ombori et al. 2013). Supplementing YEP media with a carbon source could therefore provide ideal conditions for growth of both the explant and Agrobacterium, thereby increasing transformation rates in relatively recalcitrant maize