Quality Protein Maize (QPM): Impact Assessment in Ri-Bhoi District of Meghalaya

Meghalaya being an agrarian state about 80 per cent of its population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Maize, queen of cereals is the second most important food crop of Meghalaya after rice occupies about 18000 ha area (8% of total area) with an average yield of 2150 kg/ha. The area of maize has remained stagnant for the last five years and per unit productivity is lagging behind the national average (6105 kg/ ha) of India. The constraints in achieving are cultivation of low yielding variety, local land races in acid soils with Al toxicity and non availability of improved variety of seed. In spite of several important nutritious use, maize has a drawback with two essential amino acids viz., Lysine and Tryptophane which leads to poor net utilization and low biological value of traditional maize causing malnutrition. Quality Protein Maize (QPM) has been developed by incorporating opaque 2 gene to overcome this problem which contains twice the quantity of essential amino acids. Thus, QPM cultivation provides an opportunity to the tribal farmers for producing nutritionally superior maize grains. Hence, KVK, Ri-Bhoi introduced and demonstrated QPM (Var.HQPM-1) in 6 villages covering 20.0 ha area in Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya during Kharif season of 2021-22 with an objective to increase the production, productivity of the district. The results of the demonstration revealed that an average QPM yield was enhanced by 28.90 per cent from 32.11 q/ha to 41.39 q/ha without application of any fertilizer. No incidence of disease and insect-pests attack was recorded at farmers’ field. The enhancement of net return was Rs. 42153 /ha with a profitability ratio of 2.20 in demonstration plots. Higher production efficiency and economic efficiency were recorded in demonstration plot than the farmer’s practice. The reduced feeding cost for pig and poultry was also observed at the tribal farmers’ field. The horizontal spread was very fast in few pockets but non availability of quality seeds in remote areas hindrance further spread though it might help to raise income, food and nutritional security significantly for the tribal farmers.