Success of Hybrid Maize Production for Summer Rice Replacement in Udham Singh Nagar

The farmers of the District Udham Singh Nagar have been predominantly engaged in the paddy and wheat cultivation activities. They meet their economic needs mainly through the cultivation of summer rice, rice and wheat crops. The farmers of the District felt that the summer rice cultivation is not fruitful in the long term. Therefore, they wanted an alternate crop that can help in providing more income than the summer rice.

The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kashipur, explored the market status of the maize crop. The KVK found a huge demand for the maize processing in the district. As per an estimate, the industry requires about 1,200 tonnes / day maize for the processing of maize, preparation of baby food, corn sugar and other industrial production of starches, etc. Hence, keeping the farmers’ welfare and industrial demands of maize crop in mind, several discussions between Stakeholders, Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO), Officer Incharge, KVK, Kashipur, Scientists from GBPUAT, Pantnagar and Industry persons were held regarding the maize production during summer season. The final inferences were drawn for demonstrating the hybrid maize crop on an experimental basis as an alternate crop to the summer rice.

Demonstrations on the hybrid maize DEKALB 9108 plus in collaboration with financial support of ATMA, Udham Singh Nagar were conducted in an area of 20 ha at 36 selected farmers’ field. The Periodic supervision and the departmental officials’ visit also encouraged the farmers for adopting the proper package of practice for the crop.

Results of Demonstrations at Farmers’ Field

At present, the crop harvested and production of 89.1 q/ha is recorded that is better than the summer rice. Farmers are also aware that, there is a ready market for their product without interference of middleman and getting at least ₹.1,300/qt in the market and the cost benefit ratio is in their favor.

Comparison of Five Progressive Farmers Cultivating Maize and Summer Rice

As a result, the new inferences depicted that the other farmers, earlier unwilling to cultivate the crop maize, are now quite interested in its cultivation in the Udham Singh Nagar District from the next season. For this purpose, the farmers are already interacting with the Officer Incharge, KVK, Kashipur and CAO, Udham Singh Nagar. The Food Industry driven demand of maize in the district has shown a path for the area expansion. As a result, the team of scientists along with the coordinated efforts of ATMA, Udham Singh Nagar encouraged the farmers to start looking for the better avenues of the summer rice for fetching the higher prices. These collaborative efforts have achieved the substantial results.

Organization of field days and newspaper coverage proved to be the major activities for the wider dissemination of the technology among the farming community. The Officials’ visits were also carried out at the farmers’ field during the different stages for assessing the progress of hybrid maize. In the past years, industry in Udham Singh Nagar has been importing the maize from the different states to meet up the growing requirements. Hence, the farmers were also sensitized by the extension activities for grabbing the opportunity.

(Source: C.Tiwari, Pratibha Singh and S.K.Sharma,  Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand)