Farmer’s Perspective PPS Pangli

President, Borlaug Farmers Association for South Asia 1

Developing India as an Export Hub for Maize in South-East Asia

Current Status

• 129 thousand hectares with annual production of 4.7 lactonnes. The major maize growing districts are Hoshiarpur, SBSNagar and Jalandhar.

• India ranks sixth in maize production in the world with an areaof 9.4 million hectares and annual production of 23 milliontonnes.

• Globally it is a leading cereal and bases of food security inAfrican and Latin American countries.

• Maize can play a vital role in sustaining productivity andimproving livelihood of the farmers in the present day farmingscenario. There is a need to produce more from less area andless water.

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Significance of the Industry

• Maize is very important industrial crop emerging higheststarch content with ten essential amino acids and tenessential elements that can be introduced in midday mealwith the support of government at Rs. 300-400 per qtl. extra.

• Nutrition aspect of maize need to be highlighted to make itmore popular as farmers favourite crop.

• Food has to go directly to people, much to for value additionat basic level such as establishment of maize processing units,production and processing of sweet corn and baby corn unitsin local areas.

• Quality protein maize needs to be highlighted by the media,industry and research scientist to the domestic andinternational growing markets.

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• The power of new sciences such as biotechnologyand nano technology must be used in these types ofcrops.

• The maize productivity is highest in Tamil Nadu with5.4 tonnes, Punjab with 4.0 tonnes, Harayana 3.0tonnes and UP 1.80 tonnes.

• Maize being the third most important cereal cropshould be made farmer-industry-consumer friendly.

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Challenges faced by maize farmers

• Farmers require customized package of practices inzones not blankly recommended.

• Single cross hybrids were more cultivated in the past.Now double cross hybrids are recommended with atag of nutritional aspects needs to be practicised outof research labs.

• We need to strengthen seed replacement upto 50%in open pollinated varieties in rained areas or withmicro irrigation zero drill introduction at grass rootlevel.

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Why these challenges needs to be addressed and Govt. initiatives

• Stereo type research is not required now.

• Diversification not possible overnight inPunjab, Haryana and Western UP.

• Climate resilient water tolerant marker systemselection more required in present scenariowith correlated research due to climatechange.

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Possible Solutions to address these challenges

• Genetically modified maize has a good chance at this situation.

• Biotechnology and nano technology is to be used widely with goodmanagement practices.

• Density maize is very important relooking the intercrop of pulses couldyield upto 8 MT per ha.

• Promotion of drip and sprinklers for seed production need to be startedto accelerate the maize management mission.

• Introduction of seed subsidy system particularly in baby corn and sweetcorn upto 50% by state government to make these varieties popularwith higher price tag in retail.

• Processing industry such as sweet corn, baby corn and quality proteinmaize flour needs to be highly lighted among the common population toincrease the consumption.

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Thank You

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