The corn

The history of corn begins 9,000 years ago in the mountain valleys of Mexico. Neolithic populations then ate a wild plant called teosinte. Once domesticated, this plant will take the form of corn.

Around 3000 BC. J.-C., corn has already spread in the low areas of Yucatan, the Caribbean and the equatorial zone of South America. This tropical plant then remained confined to this area for a very long time because it did not grow elsewhere. Men have taken a long time, almost 7,000 years, to select a corn that works in a temperate environment.

The European conquistadors are at the origin of a very rapid expansion of corn on all the continents and today, China is the second world producer of corn. When Europeans arrived on the American continent at the end of the 15th century, there was corn everywhere in America since it had spread to temperate zones. They then recovered varieties established all over America. Obviously, it is the temperate profiles that have best adapted to Europe and the tropical varieties that have found their place in Africa.

More recently, maize has benefited from the discoveries of Mendel and Darwin in the 19th century. They have made it possible to modify the genetic structure of varieties through hybridization. The resulting first-generation hybrid brings extraordinary gains: yields have increased tenfold from 10-50 q/ha to levels between 80-130 q/ha. On the other hand, this hybridization allows farmers to cultivate reliable, stable and homogeneous varieties, easy to harvest and in which it is possible to establish traits of interest such as resistance to lodging or diseases.

Since the 1930s, hybrids have conquered the entire corn market, including the organic segment. While maize has remained a staple food crop in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa, it is now widely consumed by animals. Maize is particularly interesting for poultry feed: the ability to produce lean animal protein, accepted by all the populations of the world, is optimum with maize.