Browsing by Subject "Efficiency"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

A full-scale study on efficiency and emissions of an agricultural biogas plant
(2013) Nägele, Hans-Joachim; Jungbluth, Thomas
In this study we focused on process engineering for the conversion of biomass, and utilization of the gas obtained by fermentation. Several topics regarding efficiency and emissions have been addressed by conducting intensive and long-term measurements. In detail, our objectives were (1) to conduct long-term measurements of the electric energy consumption of the biogas plant and its individual components and examination of energy-saving potentials; (2) to develop a method to measure mixing quality in the digester and to examine the mixing quality by measuring nutrient distribution in the digester with different agitator setups; (3) measure the influence of maintenance strategies on efficiency and emissions at long-term operation in practical application; (4) examine the efficiency of an external biological desulfurization plant under practical conditions to enhance biogas fuel quality. The results of electric energy measurement over a period of two years showed that a percentage of 8.5% (in 2010) and 8.7% (in 2011) of the produced electric energy was required to operate the biogas plant. The consumer unit agitators with 4.3% (in 2010) and 4.0% (in 2011) and the CHP unit with 2.5% (in 2010 and 2011) accounted for the highest electrical power demand, in relation to the electric energy produced by the CHP unit. Calculations show that the agitators consumed 51% (in 2010) and 46% (in 2011) of the total electric energy demand. The results stress the need for further research in the fields of substrate homogenization in biogas plants in order to reduce the demand for electric energy. Based on the results of electric energy consumption, follow-up studies have been conducted on nutrient distribution, which depends on agitator type and agitator regime. The investigation showed that significant differences in local concentrations of organic acids, which are not correlated to DM content, are found in dependence on agitator type and agitation regime. Measurements on electric energy consumption of the different agitator types verified that, depending on the agitator type, the saving potential rises up to 70%. The results for emissions and efficiency of the CHP unit confirm the fact that after readjustment of the air-fuel ratio (Lambda value), the emission values for NOx decline while CO increases. However, the emission-optimized operation mode leads to lower engine efficiency. The permanent measurements proved their legitimacy showing various emission deviations from the limiting values prior and post maintenance. In addition, the results show that by monitoring the lubricating oil quality, the oil change intervals can be maximized, while ensuring that engine performance is not endangered. This allows the operator to reduce maintenance expenditures while minimizing wear. To increase engine efficiency, the reduction of the lambda value combined with exhaust gas scrubbing and exhaust gas power generation is a promising approach. However, that would presuppose a permanent and almost total removal of H2S from the biogas. The fourth part of the study examined the technical and economic feasibility of a Fixed Bed Trickling Bioreactor (FBTB) for external biological desulfurization of biogas. In contrast to well-established biological methods to oxidize H2S, the FBTB allows removal of these from the biogas process, thus ensuring a constant low H2S concentration in the biogas. The FBTB showed H2S removal efficiencies (RE) of 98% at temperatures between 30-40°C. A major decline in RE in a range of 21-45% was observed when temperature in the FBTB dropped to a range of 5-25°C. The results revealed that different pH values of the percolation fluid and air ratios have little effect on RE. The practical use of the investigated FBTB system is an interesting technological alternative as disadvantages of internal biological desulfurization methods are being avoided. Due to high expenditures for operation resources and maintenance for FBTB operation during the research, a technical optimization is necessary to ensure economical operation. The results presented in this thesis show that the scientific instrument ?research biogas plant? is the ideal supplement to methods such as laboratory scale research and measuring programs. Research at full scale offers an entirely new opportunity to determine the interaction of process technique and process biology and to conduct long-term studies of gas utilization. Compared to measuring programs at commercial biogas plants, the research biogas plant has the advantage of being significantly better equipped with measurement technologies and that economic success is not the overall goal.
Agricultural education in Honduras : return on investment, quality, and efficiency
(2020) Flores Rios, Maria Delfina; Knierim, Andrea
The Agri-food sector, like any other economic sector, requires competent workers and entrepreneurs able to maximize productivity and cope with the various challenges the sector is facing. Agricultural education prepares these actors to acquire knowledge, identify options that optimize their productivity, and adapt to changing environments. However, the importance of agricultural education is declining in education policies, and nowadays, it is no longer an attractive field of study for the youth. There is a need to re-invent agricultural careers to the new demands of the agri-food and labor market sectors. As there is a limited number of studies available that analyze agricultural education in Latin-American and other developing countries, this research provides new insights by examining the determinants for return to investment, quality, and efficiency of agricultural education, taking Honduras as a case study. The present dissertation encompasses three interrelated studies. The first study addresses the research question on how the educational attainment on agricultural education, years of experience, age, sex, geographical region of residence, and work sector, affect the graduates earnings. This study computes the return to agricultural education by educational level, using several econometric techniques, such as the instrumental variables, Heckman’s two-step procedure, and the multinomial logit to tackle endogeneity of education, sample selection bias, and selection bias for choosing this field of study, respectively. The results show that regardless of the economic activity in which the individuals work, graduates from agricultural educational programs receive positive returns on their investment in education. High school graduates from these programs, have higher earnings within the economic activity of agriculture than non-graduates. At the university level, the graduates competencies are better paid in economic activities outside agriculture than inside, for example, in fields of manufacturing, public administration, and education. The second study addresses the question of what competencies employers require from graduates of agricultural education programs. Interviews and workshops were conducted, addressing employers from agricultural value chains, purposely selected, and using maximum variation sampling. The results show that graduates perform at an intermediate level in technical competencies. Of the 20 competencies identified, graduates perform poorly in at least six areas of competence, which requires immediate action. Although the analysis of academic curricula shows that the competencies included are relevant for employers to cope with the challenges faced by the agri-food sector, there is room for improvement. Finally, the third study addressed the question about the level of efficiency of the public institutions delivering agricultural educational programs, and the factors influencing it. This study computes the efficiency using the non-parametric approach data envelopment analysis (DEA). The model used is output-oriented, variable return to scale, and two-stage where controllable and non-controllable inputs are included in the first and second stages, respectively. This study follows a double bootstrapping procedure to avoid the caveats of the conventional DEA analysis. The evidence showed that none of the agriculture education centers in the sample is considered a full efficient entity. However, there is a potential to improve the usage of the current resources. It is possible by expanding the outcomes in a range of 1% to 50% without changing the existing resources. In summary, the findings of this dissertation provide compelling evidence that each additional level of agricultural education in Honduras is a worthwhile investment, and that graduates from both education levels, secondary and tertiary levels, are necessary to support Honduras economy. Nevertheless, improvements should be made in terms of the quality and the resources used in the provision of agricultural education. Based on the research findings, it is recommended to revise the academic curricula, with the aim of better matching education and labor market requirements. Secondly, a closer analysis of the implementation of the educational processes is necessary in order to enhance the competencies requested and identify better management of the resources available. Finally, setting formal collaboration mechanisms between the education centers, authorities, and the private sector could strongly improve agricultural education systems’ contribution to the performance of the sector. To further refine this research, it would be beneficial to increase the sample sizes to expand further the techniques used.
Efficiency and productivity in pig nutrition
(2011) Mosenthin, Rainer
The efficient use of feed ingredients in diets for pigs is an important determinant of the productivity in modern pig production systems. Thus, there is a need to accurately estimate the feeding value of various feed ingredients. Several factors have to be considered for the adequate nutritional evaluation of feedstuffs. These include information (i) on the content of energy yielding nutrients (e.g. starch, sugars, lipids, protein), (ii) the digestibility and post absorptive utilization of nutrients, in particular indispensable amino acids, (iii) the physico-chemical characteristics (e.g. solubility, viscosity) of feedstuffs, but also (iv) potential effects of feed ingredients on pigs? voluntary feed intake and (v) effects of specific feed ingredients on animal product quality (e.g. fatty acid composition) need to be identified. Moreover, so called anti-nutritional factors (ANF?s) have been recognized as important factors that may negatively affect efficiency and productivity in pig nutrition. Some of the most important ANF?s present in feedstuffs which are frequently used in pig nutrition will be addressed in greater detail in the following. The EU-wide ban on the use of protein from animal sources in 2001 contributed to an increased demand for plant protein sources in the feeding of livestock. However, most protein-rich feedstuffs of plant origin contain various kinds of ANF?s that interfere with the utilization of nutrients, thus limiting their use particularly in the nutrition of non-ruminant animals such as pigs and poultry. As a result, depressions in growth performance and animal health due to a variety of mechanisms including reducing protein digestibility, binding to various nutrients or damaging the intestinal wall, thereby lowering digestive efficiency, were observed. Major ANF?s that interfere with nutrient digestion and absorption in non-ruminants include protease inhibitors, lectins, tannins, alkaloids, pyrimidine glycosides, α-galactosides, glucosinolates, and sinapins. The type and content of these ANFs may vary considerably among different feedstuffs, moreover, many feedstuffs contain several ANFs, and the amount of ANFs may vary both between and within varieties, due to differences in plant?s growing conditions and genetics. Protease inhibitors and lectins are most significant for legume seeds (soybeans, peas, faba beans, lupins), tannins are present in rapeseed, faba beans and peas, whereas glucosinolates and sinapins dominate in rapeseed. Finally, alkaloids and α-galactosides are important in lupins, and pyrimidine glycosides can generally be found in faba beans. However, due to significant progress in plant breeding, grain legume and oilseed cultivars with negligible low contents of ANF?s are commercially available. Moreover, the application of refined processing technologies designed to reduce the content of ANF?s in feedstuffs has proven to be an efficient tool. In particular, the use of hydrothermal treatment procedures during feed processing substantially reduces the activity of several heat-labile ANFs such as lectins and protease inhibitors but contents of tannins and glucosinolates are diminished as well.
Efficiency of selected fiscal policy instruments
(2017) Dekker, Vincent; Dwenger, Nadja
The thesis at hand intends to contribute to the understanding of behavioural responses to taxation by dedicating each chapter to the analysis of a different fiscal policy instrument. Chapter 2 focusses on the individual tax system in the Netherlands that exhibits tax brackets, as opposed to a smooth progressive tax system. The aim is to uncover the extent of behavioural responses to the kinks in the budget set that are created by the non-linear increases in the marginal tax rates at the tax brackets cut-off points. From the analysis it becomes evident that individuals react to jumps in the marginal tax rate. First, an extension to the classical bunching approach introduced by Saez (2010) and extended by Chetty et al. (2011) is provided. Because individuals face optimisation frictions, perfect bunching at the kink as predicted by theory is not observable. Rather, a window around the kink, known as the bunching window, is used in the analysis. Where prior research had relied on visual inspection to determine the size of the bunching window, a data-driven procedure is proposed instead, which is shown to be robust to variations in various parameters and takes away the researchers discretion in that matter. Thus, a methodological contribution to a comparably young, but growing field of research is made. Chapter 3 discusses the implications of the introduction of transfer pricing regulations (TPR) on intermediate goods trade. The chapter thus analyses an anti-avoidance measure implemented by many governments in recent years and evaluates the consequences for allocative and distributional efficiency. The empirical literature has shown that multinational enterprises (MNEs) utilise transfer prices to shift profits into (out of) low-tax (high-tax) jurisdictions. Evidence was given in prior literature that MNEs react sensitively to the introduction of TPR in reducing (increasing) their prices when they were overvalued (undervalued) before the implementation of regulations. Surprisingly, a reaction in quantities, i.e. shifts in production and trade flows, had not been analysed in the literature before. The results indicate a substantial quantity reaction and also a pricing reaction, which is shown to be in line with the literature. This suggests that before the introduction of TPR, firms shift more exports to low tax countries and less exports to high tax countries for tax optimising purposes. Following the introduction of TPR, especially the reduction in quantities traded with low tax countries is identified. Chapter 4 deals with a recently developed tax incentive for research and development (R&D), namely the intellectual property box (IP-Box). Said to foster innovation by the implementing governments, critics accuse the IP-Box regimes of providing yet another profit shifting opportunity for multinational enterprises (MNEs). The study assesses the implications that the introduction of IP-Box regimes has on innovation and shifting behaviour, in order to judge on the efficiency and effectiveness of such a policy instrument. Whilst most R&D incentives are ex ante tax incentives, i.e. incentives that act during the innovation process and before the innovative product was developed, IP-Boxes are an ex post tax incentive, thus only benefiting successful R&D. The analysis attempts to explore whether IP-Boxes are a local innovation enhancing device, as propagated by the countries implementing IP-Boxes, or merely facilitate profit shifting for MNEs by offering a substantially lower tax rate on income from intellectual property. The results clearly show that the shifting channel dominates the home innovation channel. Some evidence is found that home developed patents were crowded out by foreign developed and subsequently shifted patents. The total number of patents does not seem to react to the introduction of IP-Boxes, thus even questioning the global innovation enhancing effect of IP-Boxes. Given the nature of the country level data, it is not possible to investigate the different designs of IP-Boxes more thoroughly, although the implementation of a development condition should be part of every IP-Box regime. This ensures that, at least from a global or even European perspective, innovation must take place somewhere.
Ethical banking and finance : a theoretical and empirical framework for the cross-country and inter-bank analysis of efficiency, productivity, and financial performance
(2012) Abu-Alkheil, Ahmad; Burghof, Hans-Peter
Islamic banking is a growing worldwide phenomenon involving a variety of institutions and instruments. Previously, Islamic banks? transactions made up a small part of the total banking industry. Recently, Islamic banks have significantly expanded their network, and have been able to mobilize a large amount of funds and upgrade many economic ventures. Given the unique behavior of Islamic banks and their involvement in both social and economic activities, there has always been a question about their long run financial sustainability, particularly in adverse market conditions. Thus, a reliable and unbiased estimation of Islamic banks?efficiency and productivity performance is essential for the evaluation of Islamic banking operations within and outside its traditional borders of Muslim economies. Due to the short history of Islamic banking in Europe, and consequently the lack of sufficient data, empirical researches on the financial performance of Islamic banking have concentrated primarily in Muslim-majority countries and focused on the theoretical issues and descriptive statistics rather than rigorous statistical and econometric estimation. The main purpose of our analysis is to bridge this gap in the global and cross-country literature and to contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the performance of Islamic banking. Therefore, the orientation of this thesis is chiefly quantitative in nature. The aim of this thesis is primarily to shed some light on the emergence and the continual global growth of Islamic banking all over the world. It also tries to assess, for the first time, the relative performance of Islamic commercial and investment banks operating in Europe against counterparties-conventional banks in Europe and also against Islamic banks from Muslim-majority countries. Our methodology in this academic work clearly differs from the literature researches. This thesis is, basically, divided into two main parts. In first part, we specifically discuss the basic features and principles of the Islamic banking and finance. We then reviewed several in-depth market analysis results concerning Islamic banking and finance that were performed by well-known specialized financial institutions. In the second part, we primarily utilize different empirical approaches to examine the performance of our sample banks which shows a great variety, ranging from large active banks to new and small banks. More specifically, we use the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to calculate the commercial banks? efficiency scores and investment banks (cost)-X-efficiency levels; the DEA-based Malmq- uist Productivity Index (MPI) to estimate the banks productivity indices; the common financial ratios to measure the banks financial performance; the T-Test to determine the differences of investment bank's performance pre- and post- the financial crisis that hit the world?s economy in 2007; the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS)-regression to determine the impact of internal and external factors on bank's efficiency and also to check the robustness of the overall results obtained from DEA scores; Spearman's rho correlation to investigate the association of the DEA-efficiency scores with the traditional accounting ratios; and eventually the efficiency?profitability matrix in order to determine the characterization of the banks' performance and the factors that influence efficiency. Our analysis is carried out, primarily, over the period from 2005 to 2008. This indeed helps to account for the impact of the recent financial crisis on the efficiency and productivity performance of the selected banks. The preliminary review of the market surveys-based analysis shows that the Islamic finance and banking is one of the fastest growing sectors in the financial world. Islamic financial products and services are increasingly being regarded as a viable investment opportunity, making them very attractive for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Leading Islamic banks from Muslim countries are expanding their network. Several European banks have directly involved in providing Islamic financial products in order to satisfy the special needs for Muslim customers and the non-Muslims who seek ethical financial and investment solutions. Eventually, European governments have also started to amend their legal, tax, and regulatory systems to allow the establishment of Islamic banks. Most importantly, from an empirical point of view, our presented results suggest that the Islamic commercial banks in Europe are found to be relatively technically inefficient. They have also, on average, poor financial performance and under-performing practices. Moreover, Islamic banks in Europe actually suffer from significant productivity losses over the sample years driven, to a large extent, by the regress in banks? technology innovations. By and large, the bank?s inefficiency stems from both the sub-optimal size of operations and the lack of management knowledge and skills. Findings suggest that the optimal size for Islamic banks to achieve better levels of performance is neither large nor small rather medium. Therefore, increasing banks size through mergers and acquisition will substantially enhance their technical efficiency and productivity progress. The period prior to the current financial crisis was marked by the most stable economic environment for generations. Our results illustrate that Islamic banks lag relatively, before the emergence of the crisis, behind their conventional peers in terms of estimated efficiency scores and productivity changes. Strikingly, conventional banks gradually lose their superiority over Islamic banks in subsequent years, but remain, on average, a head of Islamic banks. Islamic banks are, indeed, less vulnerable to the effects of the crisis as compared with counterparties-conventional banks. They exhibit only slight inefficiency and productivity regress during this severe crisis and therefore, produce a consistent and remarkable positive trend in technical efficiency, productivity performance, and financial profitability. This might be because of the beliefs in the power of petro-dollars in the Gulf region, the fact that the Islamic banks are relatively small and young at present, and could also be due to the religious financial constraints. Such factors might have played an important role in preventing Islamic banks from being severely affected by the crisis. Overall, results suggest that the small and new Islamic banks in Europe can be as efficient and productive as large and old Islamic and conventional banks. They also have long run sustainability, substantial room for improvements, and a great potential in the banking industry to sustain their competitive edge not only in Muslim countries but also in the European financial system. The estimated findings pertaining to the performance of Islamic investment banks in Europe suggest that these banks experience low (cost)-x-efficiency and poor allocative-efficiency compared with counterparties-conventional banks. Bank?s inefficiency is caused largely by the under-utilization of inputs, the bank's diseconomies of scale, and also appears to be due to the regulations not controlled by management due to fluctuations and instability in factor prices. Islamic investment banks additionally show a clear paradox between their high calculated efficiency scores and low achieved profitability ratios. They are also less risky, more solvent, and operate with lower use of debt. Nevertheless, Islamic investment banks suffer a gradual deterioration in liquidity position. The banks' supply of Murabaha (cost-plus loans) financing appears to be most dominant and has increased significantly in importance. Overall, findings seem to reveal that the banks that are technically more efficient are larger in size (total assets), financially more profitable, have greater loans intensity, acquire lower levels of debt, invests more in appropriate human skills, have a lower market share (total deposits), and operate in countries with higher GDP-per capita. Such results reflect the strong and high association between the DEA-efficiency measures and the standard accounting measures, suggesting that the DEA approach can be adopted separately or concurrently along with financial ratios to make comparisons of Islamic banks performance more robust.
Genetic approaches to dissect iron efficiency in maize
(2015) Benke, Andreas; Stich, Benjamin
Maize is susceptible to severe Fe-deficiency symptoms when growing on soils with high pH. Therefore, development of Fe-efficient maize genotypes would aid to overcome Fe limitation on these soils. However, Fe-efficiency is a quantitative trait depending on complex mechanism interactions. The determination of these mechanisms would provide a better understanding of the complex trait Fe-efficiency. In the actual study, the determination of Fe-efficiency involved mechanisms were tackled by population and quantitative genetics. In fact, population genetics facilitate the discovery of genes being important to crop improvement based on a comparison of gene evolution and its ancestral genetic material. Linkage mapping and association analyses require both phenotypic variation and polymorphic markers to determine important quantitative trait loci (QTL). The objective of this research was to dissect the genetic architecture of Fe-efficiency in maize by applying different genetic approaches. Artificial selection during domestication and (or) crop improvement can result in limitation of sequence variation at candidate genes that could limit their detection by quantitative genetic approaches. The objectives of our study were to (i) describe patterns of sequence variation of 14 candidate genes for mobilization, uptake, and transport of Fe in maize, as well as regulatory function and (ii) determine if these genes were targets of selection during domestication. This study was based on 14 candidate genes sequences of 27 diverse maize inbreds, 18 teosinte inbreds, and one Zea luxurians strain as an outgroup. The experimental results suggested that the majority of candidate genes for Fe-efficiency examined in this study were not target of artificial selection. Nevertheless, the genes NAAT1, NAS1, and MTK coding for enzymes involved in phytosiderophore production, NRAMP3 responsible for Fe remobilization during germination, and YS1 transporting PS-Fe-complexes into the root showed signatures of selection. These genes might be important for the adaptation of maize to diverse environments with different Fe availabilities. This in turn suggests, that Fe-efficiency was an adaptive trait during maize domestication from teosinte. Identification of QTL provides information on the chromosomal locations contributing to the quantitative variation of complex traits. The benefit of QTL mapping compared to mutant screenings is the possibility to detect multiple genes which may be associated with the phenotypic trait. The objectives of our studies were to (i) identify QTLs for morphological and physiological traits related to Fe homeostasis, (ii) analyze Fe-dependent expression levels of genes known to be involved in Fe homeostasis as well as positional candidate genes from QTL analysis, and (iii) identify QTLs which control the mineral nutrient concentration difference. Our studies were based on experimental data of 85 genotypes from the IBM population cultivated in a hydroponic system. The QTL mapping of morphological and physiological traits provided new putative candidate genes like Ferredoxin 1, putative ferredoxin PETF, MTP4, and MTP8 which complement the genes already known as being responsible for efficient Fe homeostasis at both, deficient and sufficient Fe regime. Furthermore, the candidate gene expression indicated a trans-acting regulation for DMAS1, NAS3, NAS1, FDH1, IDI2, IDI4, and MTK. The mineral element trait QTL confidence intervals comprised candidate genes that sequestrate Cd in vacuoles (HMA3), transport Fe2+into the root cells (ZIP10), protect the cell against oxidative stress (glutaredoxin), ensure micro nutrient homeostasis during sufficient iron regime (NRAMP2), regulate protein activities (PP2C), and prevent deleterious accumulation and interaction of specific elements within cells (PHT1;5, ZIP4). Association mapping is promising to overcome the limitations of low allele diversity and absent recombinations events causing poor resolution in detecting QTL by linkage mapping. In order to unravel the genetic architecture of Fe-efficiency a vast association mapping panel comprising 267 maize inbred lines was used to (i) detect polymorphisms affecting the morphological/physiological trait formation and (ii) fine map QTL confidence intervals determined according to linkage mapping. Some of the SNPs located beyond coding regions of genes that might be important cis-binding-sites for transcription factors. Furthermore, genes detected at the Fe-deficient regime indicate to be involved in universal stress response. However, genes linked to SNPs detected at Fe-sufficient regime might comprise alleles of Fe inefficient genotypes causing inferior trait expression. The combination of several approaches provided a valuable resource of candidate genes which might aid to increase our understanding of the mechanisms of Fe-efficiency in maize and foster the efforts in breeding superior cultivars by applying molecular marker techniques.
Strategies for selecting high-yielding and broadly adapted maize hybrids for the target environment in Eastern and Southern Africa
(2012) Windhausen, Sandra Vanessa; Melchinger, Albrecht E.
Maize is a major food crop in Africa and primarily grown by small-holder farmers under rain-fed conditions with low fertilizer input. Projections of decreasing precipitation and increasing fertilizer prices accentuate the need to provide farmers with maize varieties tolerant to random abiotic stress, especially drought and N deficiency. Genetic improvement for the target environment in Eastern and Southern Africa can be achieved by: (i) direct selection of grain yield in random abiotic stress environments, (ii) indirect selection for a secondary trait or grain yield in optimal, low-N and/or managed stress environments, or (iii) index selection using information from all test environments. At present, the maize hybrid testing programs of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) select primarily for grain yield under managed stress and optimal environments and subdivide the target environment according to geographic and climatic differences. It is not known to what extend the current strategy contributes to selection gains. The same holds true for genomic prediction, a strategy that is not yet implemented into the CIMMYT maize breeding program but that may accelerate breeding progress and reduce cycle length by predicting genotype performance based on molecular markers. Regarding the different strategies mentioned for selecting high-yielding and broadly adapted maize hybrids, the breeder needs to decide which of them are most promising to increase genetic gains. Consequently, the objectives of my thesis were to (1) evaluate the potential of leaf and canopy spectral reflectance as novel secondary traits to predict grain yield across different environments, (2) estimate to what extent indirect selection in managed drought and low-N stress environments is predictive of grain yield in random abiotic stress environments, (3) investigate whether subdividing the target environment into climate, altitude, geographic, yield level or country subregions is likely to increase rates of genetic gain, and (4) evaluate the prospects of genomic prediction in the presence of population structure. The measurement of spectral reflectance (495 ? 1853 nm) of both leaves and canopy at anthesis and milk grain stage explained less than 40% of the genetic variation in grain yield after validation. Consequently, selection based on predicted grain yield is only suitable for pre-screening, while final yield evaluation will still be necessary. Nevertheless, the prospect of developing inexpensive and easy to handle devices that can provide, at anthesis, precise estimates of final grain yield warrants further research. Based on a retrospective analysis across 9 years, more than 600 trials and 448 maize hybrids, it was shown that maize hybrids were broadly adapted to climate, altitude, geographic and country subregions in Eastern and Southern Africa. Consequently, I recommend that the maize breeding programs of CIMMYT in the region should be consolidated. Within the consolidated breeding programs, genotypes should be selected for performance in low- and high yielding environments as the genotype-by-yield level interaction variance was high relative to the genetic variance and genetic correlations between low- and high-yielding environments were moderate. Genetic gains were maximized by index selection, considering the yield-level effect as fixed and appropriately weighting information from all trials. To allow better allocation of resources, locations with high occurrence of random abiotic stress need to be identified. Heritability in trials conducted at these locations may be increased by the use of row- and column designs and/or spatial adjustment. Furthermore, resources invested into managed drought trials should be maintained during early breeding stages but shifted to the conduct of low-N trials at later breeding stages. Investments in a larger number of low-N trials may increase selection gain, because performance under low-N and random abiotic stress was highly correlated and genotypes can be easily selected under different levels of soil N. Prospects are promising to accelerate breeding cycles by the use of genomic prediction. Based on two large data sets on the performance of eight breeding populations, it was shown that prediction accuracy resulted primarily from differences in mean performance of these populations. Genomic prediction may be implemented into the CIMMYT maize breeding program to predict the performance of lines from a diversity panel, segregating lines from the same or related crosses, and progenies from closed populations within a recurrent selection program. The breeding scenarios in which genomic prediction is most promising still need to be defined. Generally, the construction of larger training sets with strong relationship to the validation set and a detailed analysis of the population structure within the training and validation sets are required. In conclusion, combining index and genomic selection is the most promising strategy for providing high-yielding and broadly adapted maize genotypes for the target environments in Eastern and Southern Africa.