Agriculture Minister pitches for a package of measures to boost Maize Productivity

Maize production must grow at 15% CAGR to meet demand, improving price-realisation for farmers vital: FICCI-PwC report

Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Mr. Radha Mohan Singh has called for a package of measures to boost maize production and productivity and realise its potential as the 'future cereal crop'.

Mr. Singh said that there was a need for a mix of strategies and interventions around technological innovations, promoting producer aggregation and linkages, enabling supporting infrastructure, forging public-private partnerships and appropriate policy measures.

"Forging PPP opportunities for establishment of maize-based silage making units, Skill Development Centres and farm machinery banks are the prospective avenues for investment," he said.

Mr. Singh added that these avenues need to be tapped and scaled up to increase mechanization in Maize production. Between now and 2050, the demand for maize in the developing world will double, and by 2025 maize will have become the crop with the greatest production globally and in the developing world. In India, most of the maize produced is used for animal feed and only a small portion utilized for human consumption. Its full potential, therefore, is yet to be realised, he said.

The Minister pointed out that only 15% of cultivated area of maize is irrigated. It was time to link Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) to achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level, expand cultivable area under assured irrigation (Har Khet ko pani), improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage of water, enhance the adoption of precision-irrigation and other water saving technologies (More Crop per Drop) to increase the production, productivity and quality of the maize crop in the country.

He said that Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare was focusing on reforms on agri-marketing and has made special announcements on developing and upgrading existing 22,000 rural haats into Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs) with a corpus of Rs. 2000 crore. "I would suggest the maize agri-business companies should make special efforts to create linkages with maize farmers on ground by exploring various opportunities in agri-marketing," he said.

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