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Informist, Friday, Mar. 28, 2025

NEW DELHI – Maize farming in the country has plenty of scope to grow and is likely to grow vertically and not horizontally, and reach 55-60 million tonnes easily, Abinash Verma, promoter of Eastern India Biofuels Pvt. Ltd. said Friday, speaking at the Maize and Millet summit 2025. A vertical growth would mean higher productivity in a smaller area and horizontal growth would mean expansion of area.

"Indian maize yields vary from 2.5 tonnes per hectare to 6 tonnes per hectare on average. In Purnia region of Bihar, we ourselves have been able to get a productivity of 7-8 tonnes per hectare with some pockets even going up to 11-12 tonnes per hectare with hybrid varieties. I see farmers adopting this pan nation which would lead to an easy rise of our total production to 55-60 million tonnes," Verma said. 

In 2023-24 (Jul-Jun), maize prices had hit an all-time high in the domestic markets due to lower production caused by erratic monsoon. Additional demand from ethanol sector also supported prices. India, which had earlier been a net exporter, became a net importer after it started producing ethanol from the crop.

This increased the maize acreage in 2024-25 as farmers shifted from other crops like soybean to maize amid attractive returns. The government also set a target of 40 million tonnes for the current crop year. In the current year, the kharif maize production is seen at 24.8 million tonnes while that of rabi is pegged at 12.4 million tonnes. The government is yet to release its estimates for summer maize production. The country's maize production increased from 31.6 million tonnes in 2021-22 to 38.1 million in 2022-23 and 37.7 million tonnes in 2023-24.

With Maize finding more and more buyers as demand rises due to ethanol production from the crop, Verma sees supply matching demand. "While there is bound to be a couple of years of pain, I see it settling down eventually. Maize-based ethanol is currently at nascent stage and has the potential to rise exponentially," he said. 

But while Indian maize production has been rising, there is still a long way to go--the country's productivity is less than half of the global average. The productivity in India is 3.2 tonnes per hectare against the world average of 5.5 tonnes. The US, the biggest maize producer, has a productivity of over 10 tonnes.  End

Reported by Pallavi Singhal

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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