New Delhi, Mar 24 (KNN) In the 5th edition of FICCI’s India Maize Summit 2018, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh has called for a package of measures to boost maize production and productivity and realize its potential as the ‘future cereal crop.’

While inaugurating the summit, Singh said that maize being an important cereal crop, needs 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 to enhance its growth and tap the immense potential.

“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.

He further added that in order to increase mechanization in Maize production, these avenues need to be tapped and scaled up.

On estimating the demand, he said that by 2050, the demand of maize in developing world will get doubled 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 added

During the summit, Minister released a FICCI-pwc knowledge report on ‘Maize Vision 2022’ and said “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.”

FICCI-PwC report suggests that the maize production must grow at 15% CAGR to meet domestic demand simultaneously, with an ambitious target to double the farmer’s income by 2022.

The report further suggests that with a view to meet the desired demand levels and enhances farmer’s income, backward and forward linkage strategies should be introduced to bring paradigm shift in the crop economy.

The report recommends that the sector requires closer attention to further enhance the growth and tap the immense potential it offers.

The report also suggests that establishment of Maize based Skill Development Centers and Maize based Farm machinery banks for small and marginal farmers could be game changers.

Rapid technology adoption through scaling up of single cross hybrid and biotechnological interventions to boost productivity, facilitating producer aggregation and market linkages, supporting enabling dedicated infrastructures like seed cold storage, maize dryers, maize silos and value-added units are key future considerations identified in report. (KNN/YV)