Maize Ear Digital Imaging for Yield Components Assessment

In Sub-Saharan Africa, many food security programs aim to increase crop yields by developing and disseminating better seeds and agronomy to millions of smallholder farmers. In the case of maize, research and development organizations use key indicators like grain yield, or maize cob number and size to understand the performance of the maize plant under different environmental conditions. But these indicators are still labor-intensive and expensive to measure. CIMMYT has developed a digital imaging tool called Maize Ear Analyzer that collects maize cob and grain parameters 90% faster than traditional methods (Makanza et al, 2018). This imaging tool can be adapted to other crops.