TAMNET Tropical Asian Maize Network During the First South-East Asian Maize Network funded by the FAO Regular Programme and held in Bangkok in January 1993, the participants from the various National Maize Programmes (NMPs) agreed on an FAO proposal to create the Tropical Asian Maize Network (TAMNET). The CIMMYT Asian Regional Maize Programme was invited to join the new network. At the initiative of FAO a the first collaborative hybrid maize trial for Asia was set up. Results from the 1993 experiment were analysed and found particularly useful by the participating countries. The FAO's Regular Programme and donors made possible the diversification of TAMNET's activities. The following manuals were published in collaboration with the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP): - Strategies for Increasing Maize Production in the Asia-Pacific Region - Baby Corn Production - Technical Manual on Transplanting of Maize on Wetland in Vietnam - A Success Story: Single Cross Maize in China - A Success Story: Inbred Maize in Thailand Training courses were organised on the following topics: Maize Production, Kasetsart University, Thailand, 1994; Transplanting Maize , Vietnam, 1994; Baby Corn Production, Bangkok, Thailand , 1995. Every year two Collaborative Hybrid Maize Trials (one for early and one for late hybrids) are carried out in the in Asian countries to compare the best hybrids from the National Maize Programmes (NMPs) and from the CIMMYT Asian Regional Maize Programme. In 1995, the private seed companie members of the Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) were authorised to have their hybrid maize tested by the network.; a US$ 1,000 fee per hybrid paid by the companies partly finance TAMNET's activities. NMPs exchange maize germplasm within the framework of TAMNET; in 1995 Kasetsart University, Thailand, released through TAMNET three elite maize inbred lines, which can be used freely as hybrid parents by the other NMPs. TAMNET held a meeting every two years. Next meeting will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam from 27 to 29 October 1998. There is no doubt that TAMNET is contributing, through the increased use of hybrid maize, to increase the maize productivity in Tropical Asia.