New Delhi, 27 Sep 2024 | Nirmesh Singh

Addressing 10th edition of ‘India Maize Summit 2024’, organized by FICCI on 25^th September 2024, Bihar Agriculture Minister Mangal Pandey called for private sector to come and invest in Bihar in hybrid maize seed production and warehouse facilities amid increased local production.

“Bihar currently has storage capacity of 5 lakh MT for maize and the government is working to increase the capacity to meet the future demand”, Pandey said.

The Minister also called upon the seed industry to set-up operations in Bihar to provide good quality maize hybrid seeds to the farmers.

“We are also facing a huge requirement for hybrid maize seeds. I invite the private industry to invest in local seed production,” Pandey said.

“The government of Bihar has taken a target of increasing area under maize cultivation to about 10 lakh hectares in the current year,” he added.

As India is the fifth-largest maize producer in the world, the state is witnessing a shift in farmer preferences towards maize cultivation due to attractive market prices surpassing the minimum support price (MSP).

“Maize is no longer just for human and animal consumption. It’s now powering our vehicles through ethanol-blended petrol,” Pandey said, highlighting the crop’s expanding utility.

The Centre’s decision to allow maize as a feedstock for ethanol production has led to a multi-fold increase in demand, spurring the establishment of ethanol plants across the state.

Dr Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt of India highlighted the need to create a vision document for next 10 years indicating sector wise demand of maize for the next decade along with the interventions required to achieve the demand.

“We need to promote area expansion under the summer maize crop which will help in increasing the maize production as well as diversifying from traditional crops such as rice,” he added.

Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Govt of Bihar said, “Special schemes for the promotion of baby corn and sweet corn are also being undertaken to diversify maize products and increase market opportunities, and the state government is planning to promote in-house production of seeds in Bihar and is working on a policy framework in this regard”.

Subroto Geed, President, South Asia, Corteva Agriscience, said, “India’s maize sector is primed for a revolution, with its potential to significantly enhance productivity, and support the accelerating requirement in feed, fodder, fuel and other industrial applications.”

Maize is also a strong candidate for crop diversification as the focus on sustainable agriculture goes up, he added.
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