Maize prices up despite higher sowing

Sowing and crop are expected to go up by 3-5% this kharif season

Maize prices are reigning high in the open market due to lower availability of the crop. The damage to the rabi crop due to early monsoon and deterioration in the quality of maize because of open storage have created a supply crunch. Sowing during this kharif season, however, is expected to go up by three-five per cent.

The maize price registered an unprecedented increase of Rs 200 a quintal in the last one month. Depending upon the moisture content, maize prices are between Rs 1,600 and Rs 1,650 a quintal. While weakening of the rupee might have helped starch exporters, those using maize as a primary input are unable to cash in on this opportunity as there is a dearth of raw material.  

The industry is operating at 70 per cent capacity due to supply bottlenecks. The starch export market is lucrative these days but the paucity of maize has hindered companies from gains in currency fluctuation, Vishal Majithia, president of the Starch Manufacturers’ Association, told Business Standard.

The sowing this year is higher by three to five per cent in different parts of India for kharif maize, says Raju Choksi, vice-president, agri commodities, at Anil Nutrients Ltd. Choksi attributes the higher acreage to better monsoon. The dry spell last year refrained the farmers in some areas from growing maize, he added.

The results of the kharif crop would be visible in October when the arrivals start. If the rain God remains kind, the crop size would be higher than last year. But there’s time to go and nobody can predict the climate, Choksi said.  

Maize is used in manufacturing 200 products and despite a thrust by the government to grow maize, farmers have not shown keen interest in the past few years.  

A grant of Rs 200 crore has been sanctioned to set up  a  Directorate of Maize Research at Laddowal, near Ludhiana, Punjab. The institute, with 45 scientists, would be relocated from the existing campus in New Delhi and run by the Indian Council of Agricultureal Research. Despite huge demand from the industry, farmers have shown tepid interest in diversifying to maize.

Paviterpal Singh Pangli, a farmer from Punjab, said the assured price of maize was a must to mobilise farmers to grow the crop. The Union agriculture ministry raised the minumum support price of maize to Rs 1,310 per quintal this year from last year’s 1,175 per quintal.

So, the demand for the industry has to be channelised. Maize has a tremendous scope in the food processing industry and value addition to maize may generate good exports potential.