Maize agro-food systems to ensure food and nutrition security in reference to the Sustainable Development Goals

Maize is an important staple food that has cultural, economic, environmental, and nutritional impacts in the world. In addition to being a cornerstone crop for human nutrition, maize is in high demand due to global investments in animal feed and ethanol for biofuel. The inputs needed and highly valued outputs of the maize agro-food system can be aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the aim of supporting the production of nutritious maize for healthy humans. The purpose of this paper is to use the SDGs as a framework to illustrate to readers from multiple disciplines how the example of the maize agro-food system can be important in ensuring global food and nutrition security.