While most cereal crops have tended to go under in the past decade or so, maize has not only bucked this trend but has also scaled new heights. Its production has grown annually by a robust 4.5 per cent in last 10 years to a record 18.5 million tonnes in 2007-08. The bulk of this increase, significantly, is accounted for by higher productivity and not by area expansion alone.

Noted agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan described this as a mini-revolution brought about by Indian scientists who developed a bunch of single-cross hybrids which are not only rich in yield but are also nutritionally superior.

He and other maize scientists who attended a symposium on quality maize organised by the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) and the Directorate of Maize Research in Delhi early this month felt that the newly developed maize hybrids with superior quality protein can uphold food and nutrition security.

Indeed, maize is a versatile grain which has not received the attention it merits. Apart from being human food, it serves as a nutritious feed for poultry, piggery, fisheries and livestock, and also as an industrial raw material for making starch and other products. Besides, a sizable part of it is being converted into biofuel in some countries, notably the US.

One of the reasons for maize losing ground as a preferred staple grain was its poor protein quality, being wanting in two key amino acids, lysine and tryptophan. The maize breeders have, for long, been facing difficulties in tackling this issue because the quality of protein is inversely related to the total protein content. Any improvement in protein quality was, thus, accompanied by a reduction in overall protein content which was far from desirable.

However, this hurdle has now been overcome. Well-known maize scientist, Surinder K Vasal of the Mexico-based international research centre for maize and wheat (CIMMYT), has succeeded in introducing "opaque 2" genes into the maize genomics to improve its protein quality without sacrificing other traits.

This development has paved the way for the development of several protein-enhanced maize hybrids in India and abroad which are deemed to have the potential to revolutionise maize cultivation. Significantly, some of the world's best single-cross maize hybrids have been developed in the public sector in India. Equally importantly, these have also been received well by the farmers wherever these have been tried out.

Indeed, the optimism about maize playing a greater role as food and feed crop in future stems from two factors. First, maize can be grown in both kharif and rabi seasons, though traditionally, farmers have been raising it only as a rainfed kharif crop. In fact, the average yield of the hybrids in the rabi season (about 3.8 tonnes a hectare) is nearly 2.3 times that in the kharif season (1.66 tonnes), against the country's overall average yield of less than two tonnes a hectare.

And second, the demand for maize is increasing fast which is likely to keep its prices at remunerative levels to drive the production up. About 60 per cent of the maize output is currently being consumed as feed for poultry and other livestock. This demand is slated to swell substantially as the growth of the poultry industry is reckoned to rise from the present 11 to 12 per cent a year to nearly 15 per cent in next few years due to increasing demand for eggs and poultry meat.

Significantly, the quality protein maize (generally referred to as QPM) produced by the new generation gene-altered hybrids is expected to provide better nutrition for humans and livestock at relatively cheaper costs. The Bihar government has already taken an initiative in including QPM in the mid-day meals provided to school children. West Bengal, too, has taken up an elaborate programme for the production and distribution of QPM hybrid seeds. Such seeds have produced average maize yields of around 7 tonnes a hectare in the state. The other states, obviously, need to emulate these examples.

However, a few policy issues need to be tackled on a priority basis. Since most of the good maize hybrids have been produced in the public sector where the seed production capacity is rather limited, the private sector will have to be involved in the production and distribution of hybrid seeds. Besides, QPM grains would have to be segregated and marketed separated to ensure proper pricing.

surinder.sud@bsmail.in