الوصف

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most versatile emerging crops shaving wider adaptability under varied agro-climatic conditions. Globally, maize is known as the queen of cereals because it has the highest genetic yield potential among the cereals. It is cultivated on nearly **0 m ha in about **5 countries having wider diversity of soil, climate, biodiversity and management practices that contributes to *9 % of the global grain production. The United States of America (USA) is the largest producer of maize contributes nearly *0.*9% of the total production in the world in ***0 and maize is the driver of the US economy. In India, Maize is grown throughout the year. It is predominantly a Kharif crop with *5 percent of the area under cultivation during the season. Maize is the third most important cereal crop in India after rice and wheat. It accounts for around *0 percent of total food grain production in the country. India is also the fifth largest producer of Maize in ***0 as per FAO data and Indias share in world production accounted to be 2.*9 per cent in the same year. In addition to staple food for human being and quality feed for animals, maize serves as a basic raw material as an ingredient in thousands of industrial products that includes starch, oil, protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, film, textile, gum, package and paper industries, etc.