Cultivate baby corn for crop diversification: PAU expert
Ludhiana, May 9
The government is increasingly laying stress on crop diversification. The diversification of some area from rice to maize would help in improving the physical condition of the soil and general environment, say experts of Panjab Agricultural University (PAU).
“Maize needs less water as compared to rice, which would help in saving the precious natural resource. The baby corn cultivation can contribute in diversifying cropping pattern,” say experts.
With the increasing concern for health, people have turned towards quality food. Baby corn is the ear of maize plant. It is eaten as salad, used in preparation of soup, manchurian, mixed vegetables, pickles, pakora and other eatables. Experts, Punjab Agricultural University
“The crop is terminated at 60 to 65 days. This makes it possible to take more number of crops from the same piece of land. Baby maize popularly known as ‘baby corn’ is a kind of specialty maize,” experts added.
“Baby corn cultivation is an alternative for the crop diversification, value addition of maize as well as the growth of food processing industry,” say experts.
“With the increasing concern for health, people have turned towards quality food in place of bulky items. Baby corn is the ear of maize plant. Young, fresh and finger like green ears are harvested before fertilisation just at the silk emergence and is eaten as salad, used in preparation of soup, manchurian (Chinese dish), mixed vegetables, pickles, pakora and other eatables,” experts added.
“It’s delicate, sweet flavour and crisp nature contributes to its increasing popularity thus making it an indispensable ingredient in many fancy dishes of today. It is in huge demand at hotels, airlines, shipping companies and most popular in western countries holding great export potential,” said Mahesh Kumar, Tosh Garg of the Maize Section Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PAU.
“The economic return every year per unit will increase due to high economic value of the crop product and increased cropping intensity. The baby corn crop is terminated at about 60 to 65 days. This makes it possible to take more number of crops from the same piece of land,” said Gagandeep Singh from the PAU maize section.
Industrial use
Baby corn cultivation would result in generating employment for both skilled and unskilled workers. Harvesting and post-harvest handling of baby corn produce requires lot of labour. It has great potential as canned product and industries for packing, canning, processing, transportation and storage would also develop.
Boost to dairy farming
The important benefit of baby corn cultivation is that it would help promote dairy farming. After picking baby corn ears, farmer would get good quality of fresh, green and nutritious fodder for dairy cattle. The supply of fresh green fodder could be maintained for longer periods. Staggered sowing has to be done for regular supply to the market.
Nutritional quality
Baby corn is similar to other vegetables and is comparable with cauliflower, cabbage, tomato and cucumber from nutritional point of view. Baby corn ears have been found to contain 1.5 per cent protein, 8.2 per cent carbohydrate and 89 per cent water. It also contains considerable amount of vitamin A and C. Most important factor about baby corn as vegetable is that it is free from any kind of insecticide and environment pollution.
