Maize Farmers need good germplasm, agronomic interventions, enabling infrastructure & minimizing of post-harvest waste.
Parshottambhai Rupala, Minister of State (Agri & Farmers Welfare), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, today said that PM’s ambitious target of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, can be achieved through private sector investment and participation in agriculture.
Addressing the ‘7th India Maize Summit 2021’, organized by FICCI, Rupala said that farmers will be interested in the cultivation of maize only if it’s profitable. “We must project maize as a surplus crop,” added the minister.
Rupala further highlighted the importance of hedging and the need to include it in the agricultural policies. He also gave assurance for minimum support price (MSP) in maize.
Amrendra Pratap Singh, Minister, Agriculture Department, Government of Bihar said that Bihar always had the potential to be an enterprise state and an ethanol promotion policy will permit investors to directly produce ethanol which will make Bihar the ideal state for investment in agriculture.
Ravishankar C, Vice President Marketing, Bayer CropScience & Chair of Maize Initiative said we need to create public infrastructure so that we can be competitive exporters and not just internal traders. We must ensure our farmers do not suffer a competitive disadvantage.
Gurpreet Bhathal, Director-Seed Sales, Corteva Agriscience said to realize full potential of maize, it is necessary to make maize farming profitable for farmers. Maize Farmers need good germplasm, agronomic interventions, enabling infrastructure & minimizing of post-harvest waste. This could only be achieved through collaboration & intervention. Private companies, FPOs, Govt and Public sectors need to come together to play an enabling role, he added.
Vijay Kumar Venkatraman, Managing Director, NCDEX said farmers will wait for the right price and need storage infrastructure for maize. India has major scope in maize exports which needs improvement in the supply chain.
Sunjay Vuppuluri, Head -Food & Agribusiness Strategic Advisory & Research (FASAR) Segment, YES Bank said the knowledge paper released today captures dynamics of the maize sector with a focus on India and identifies the key challenges. We need to develop a maize atlas, productivity improvement and agricultural practices, he said.
T R Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee & Group President, TAFE Ltd said having realised the potential of maize in generating better income for farmers while providing gainful employment, Maize also qualifies as a potential crop for doubling farmer’s income.
