State seeks to increase maize cultivation area by 60K hectares

The state government has taken steps to further increase the area of maize cultivation in the state by 60,000 hectares in the next three years to meet the growing demand of animal feed, poultry feed as well as fish feed in the state.

“We are making farmers aware about the advantages and better prospects of maize cultivation and are trying to rope in the chamber of commerce’ to set up maize processing units. We held some meetings with noted chambers,” Arup Roy, state minister for Food Processing Industries and Horticulture said.

The Agriculture department is reaching out to maximum farmers to draw their interest to maize cultivation. Nadia, Malda, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur and Darjeeling witness such cultivation in the state. Bengal has recorded a noticeable increase in the area and production of maize in the last few years. Area expansion has increased from 2.64 lakh hectares to 4 lakh hectares in the last five years and production has increased from 3.52 lakh metric tonnes in 2011-12 to 29 lakh metric tonnes during 2023-24 (as per second advance estimate).

“State witnessed eight times increase in production of maize due to good agricultural practices and promotion of good quality seeds by the state,” state Agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said.

Maize contains energy, protein, and many other nutrients which are essential in animal feed preparation. West Bengal Livestock Development Corporation Limited (WBLDCL) has started procurement of maize directly from farmers belonging to Self-Help-Groups (SHGs) or Farmers’ Producer Company (FPC) for utilising it in production of poultry feed. The main objective is to encourage the farmers to cultivate maize as an alternative agriculture in low rainfall areas and less fertile lands so they are economically benefited.

WBLDCL has to produce 5,000 tonnes of poultry feed every month and 60 to 65 per cent maize is required for this purpose. In some cases in the existing tendering system for procuring maize, the quality has been below the mark.