ICAR says maize is a good option to replace rice.

ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research at Ludhiana, in collaboration with CIMMYT, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, CCSHAU at Hisar and the State Department of Agriculture, Government of Haryana, organized a state level maize event. .

Dr. DK Yadav, Assistant Director General (Seeds) urged farmers to cultivate maize to conserve resources and increase profitability. He developed the maize-mustard-peanut system for better farm profitability, nutrition and soil health. Dr. Yadav stressed on the need to find alternative crops to address the affordability and quality of public sector hybrid seeds and water scarcity. They highlighted corn biofortified with lysine, tryptophan, and provitamin A. Meanwhile, Dr HS Jat stressed the urgent need to increase maize production for ethanol to meet market challenges with policy support. Dr. RK Yadav advocated maize-based systems for sustainable soil management, and Dr. Mahesh Gathala presented strategies for groundwater conservation. Dr. Aditya Dabas discourages burning of crop residues.

Farmers in the region are concerned about ensuring a stable maize market and competitive prices. They see the technology available through the ICAR-CIMMYT platform as a potential alternative to rice. They believe that supporting farmers with best management practices and ensuring availability of inputs, machinery and procurement options is critical to increasing maize production.

The government aims to meet the demand of more than 14 million tonnes of corn for ethanol production by 2025-26, aiming to achieve a 20 per cent ethanol blend in petrol. However, current maize production is insufficient due to its use in feed, starch and value-added industries.

380 farmers from different districts of Haryana and Punjab participated in this event, including 60 women farmers.

First Published: 28 Sep 2023, 09:19 IST