Need for increased investment in agriculture sector and integrating high end technologies to improve the sector
Addressing the 8th edition of ‘India Maize Summit 2022’, organized by FICCI, Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Govt of India assured the industry of government’s support to boost the maize sector . Tomar said that the popularity of maize is not only growing globally but also in India with its diversified use in many sectors including poultry and ethanol production. The government, under crop diversification is promoting farmers to increase maize production through various initiatives. “The MSP of maize has been increased by 43 percent in last 8 years and with the increase in production the farmers are also getting benefited from this,” he added.
T R Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee & Group President, TAFE said that maize holds immense potential for food and nutritional security. It provides the right avenue for crop diversification and also for increasing farmer income, especially for small and marginal farmers in the rainfed areas, he added.
Earlier during the inaugural session, Amrendra Pratap Singh, Minister of Agriculture, Govt of Bihar said that maize is one of the most important food crops in the world and provides food security to majority of developing nations. In India, Maize is developing as the third most important crop after wheat and rice. Bihar contributes to over 9 percent of total maize production in India and is the fifth largest producer of maize after Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, he added.
