Development of maize hybrids for production and economic growth in the northern midland and mountainous region of Vietnam

Maize is an important crop in the northern midland and mountainous region of Vietnam with the area of 406.1 thousand hectares, accounting for 45.8% of the whole country. In order to exploit the potential and advantages for developing sustainable and highly valued maize production, the program on development of maize hybrids for production and economic growth in the northern midland and mountainous region of Vietnam in accordance with the Government policies and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s directions on sustainable agricultural development strategy has been successfully implemented in which newly released maize hybrids developed by Maize Research Institute (Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences) with high yield, good quality, good resistance and over-all advanced technologies were accordingly introduced in rainfed based maize areas of larger scale. The program partly contributed to improving the grain yield from 1.5 tons/ha in the early 1990s to 4.99 tons/ha in this region that played an important role not only in maize production development but also in national food security and environmental protection as well.