Cultivation of MAIZE

Maize is also know as Bhutta (Bengali), Makai (Gujarati), Maka (Hindi, Marathi, Oriya), Musikinu Jola (Kannada), Makaay (Kashmiri), Cholam (Malayalam), Makka Cholam (Tamil), Mokka Jonnalu (Telugu).

ORIGIN

The primary centre of origin of maize is considered by most authorities to be Central America and Mexico, where many diverse types of maize are found. The discovery of fossil maize pollen with other archaeological evidence in Mexico indicates Mexico to be the native land of maize.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

Maize is cultivated throughout the world. From 58°N latitude to 40°S latitude, the crop is spread and cultivated over 139 million hectares of area, producing around 600 million tonnes of maize. The crop occupies the third position, next to rice and wheat, in terms of area and production. USA, China, Brazil, Mexico, India, Romania, Philippines, and Indonesia are some of the important countries cultivating maize. In India, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra are the key states producing maize.

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

Maize is a staple human food, feed for livestock, and is used for fermentation and many industrial purposes. It contains abundant starch (65%). There are two types of milling:

Wet Milling:

Produces industrial starch like sweeteners and various modified maize starches for paper lamination, textile wrap, sizing, and laundry finishing.

Dry Milling:

Produces animal feed, brewing materials, breakfast cereals, and other foods. In India, dry milling predominates for flour and animal feed, fermentation and distilling industries, and composite flours.
In the new millennium, maize serves as an alternate crop to rice and wheat. About 35% of production is consumed by humans, 25% by poultry and cattle feed, and 15% by food processing industries.

MAIZE GRAIN TYPES

1-Flint Corn (Zea mays indurata)

The entire outer portion of the kernel is hard starch. Flint corn comes in many colours such as white, yellow, red, blue, or their variations.

2-Dent Corn (Zea mays indentata)

About 95% of maize production in the USA is dent corn. Hard starch is confined to the kernel only. The amylose of soft starch in the core contracts when the grain is dried, producing a characteristic dent in the top of the kernel. Dent corn may be yellow, white, or red in colour.

3-Sweet Corn (Zea mays saccharata)

Grown for food and harvested at 70% moisture content. It is a good source of energy. About 20% of dry matter is sugar compared to 3% in dent corn. It is also a good source of vitamin C and A.

4-Flour Corn (Zea mays amylacea)

The kernel is largely composed of soft starch with little or no hard starch. Kernels are easy to grind. It is primarily used by natives of the Andean Highlands of South America.

5-Pop Corn (Zea mays everta)

Its kernel is small and an extreme form of flint corn. When heated to 170°C, the grain swells and bursts, turning inside out. At this temperature, the water held in the starch turns to steam, and the pressure causes the explosion.

6-Waxy Corn (Zea mays ceretina)

Due to the waxy appearance of the kernel, it is called waxy corn. The starch is entirely amylopectin, whereas dent corn has 78% amylopectin and 22% amylose. Hybrids of waxy corn are raw materials for the wet milling starch industry, particularly for textile and paper sizing, as well as for corn oil production.

Soil Requirement

Deep, fertile, rich in organic matter, and well-drained soils are the most preferred ones for the crop. However, maize can be grown on a variety of soil types. The soil should be medium-textured with good water-holding capacity. The crop is very sensitive to waterlogging, and since it is mainly grown during the rainy season, care should be taken to ensure that water does not stagnate on the soil surface for more than 4-5 hours. Loamy or silty loam soil or silty clay loam soil with a fairly permeable subsoil is ideal. Thus, the ideal soil is neither clayey nor sandy, with a pH between 6.5 and 7.5, an exchangeable capacity of around 20 milli-equivalent/100g, base saturation of 70-90%, bulk density of about 1.3 g/cc, and a water-holding capacity of about 16 cm/m depth.

Climatic Requirement

Maize requires temperatures between 9°C and 30°C from planting to emergence. From emergence to silking, leaf number increases with temperature and photoperiod. The time to tasseling increases as the diurnal variation rises from 0°C to 17°C. The maximum rate of maize growth occurs at 30°C. A longer grain-filling period results in higher grain yield, provided there are no freezing temperatures. Higher solar radiation enhances photosynthesis in maize, contributing to better yield.

Application of Fertilizers

Apply NPK fertilizers as per soil test recommendations wherever possible. If soil test recommendations are unavailable, adopt a blanket recommendation of 135:62.5:50 NPK kg/ha. Apply one-quarter of the nitrogen dose and the full dose of phosphorus (P₂O₅) and potassium (K₂O) basally before sowing. For ridge-planted crops, open a furrow 6 cm deep on the side of the ridge, at two-thirds the distance from the top of the ridge. Apply the fertilizer mixture evenly along the furrows and cover it with 4 cm of soil. For crops planted using the bed system, open furrows 6 cm deep at a distance of 60 cm apart, place the fertilizer mixture evenly along the furrows, and cover it with 4 cm of soil. When Azospirillum is used as a seed and soil application, apply 100 kg of nitrogen per hectare, which is a 25% reduction of the total nitrogen recommended by soil tests.
For micronutrient application, 12.5 kg of micronutrient mixture formulated by the Department of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu, should be mixed with sand to make a total quantity of 50 kg/ha. If ridge planting is followed, apply the mixture over the furrows and two-thirds of the way up the top of the ridges, while in the bed system of sowing, the micronutrient mixture should be applied over the furrows without incorporating it into the soil.

Seed Rate

Select good quality seeds and adopt a seed rate of 20 kg/ha for grain maize and 25 kg/ha for baby corn. Ensure a spacing of 25 cm between plants in rows that are 60 cm apart.