India Targets 75 Million Tonnes of Maize Without Squeezing Pulses and Oilseeds
India’s top agricultural research official has set a goal of lifting national maize production to 75 million tonnes over the next decade, up from roughly 55 million tonnes today. The call, made at the opening of the International Maize Conference in Hyderabad on 2 November 2026, puts productivity—not a simple expansion of planted area—at the centre of the plan.
The target means nearly 20 million extra tonnes
The official conference release cites current production at about 55 million tonnes. India’s latest crop estimate is more precise: the Agriculture Ministry’s third advance estimate for 2025–26 placed maize output at 55.093 million tonnes, a record and 11.684 million tonnes above the prior year.
Moving from 55.093 million to 75 million tonnes would add 19.907 million tonnes, or 36.1%. That is a large expansion, but it follows an unusually strong estimated jump of 26.9% in a single season—from 43.409 million tonnes in 2024–25. The latest number remains an advance estimate, however, and should not be treated as a final harvested total.
The 75-million-tonne figure is a strategic ambition announced by the director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, not a binding production programme. The release does not set annual milestones, a budget, a required planted area or a crop-by-crop land-use plan. Those omissions matter because a target becomes operational only when seed, water, agronomy, storage and demand can be matched region by region.
More yield, not simply more land
ICAR Director-General M. L. Jat called for a further 1.5-fold increase in productivity through better technology, crop management and resource use. If “1.5-fold” means 50% higher yield, that would exceed the 36.1% production increase needed to reach 75 million tonnes if harvested area stayed constant. The release does not define the productivity baseline or the exact measurement period, so the figure is best read as a research direction rather than a calibrated forecast.
The land-use constraint was unusually explicit. Jat said maize should be targeted across seasons and agroecological zones without compromising oilseeds and pulses. That qualification is central to the economics of the goal: maize competes for land, irrigation, labour and capital with crops that India also wants to produce domestically. A maize gain achieved mainly by displacing soybean, mustard, chickpea or pigeon pea could move pressure elsewhere in the food and feed system.
The conference identified several levers for closing yield gaps: affordable quality seed, stronger public-sector hybrid supply, improved crop management, mechanisation, stress resistance and better input-use efficiency. ICAR said 329 maize hybrids had been developed over the past five years. The practical test will be whether suitable hybrids reach farmers with extension support and deliver stable returns outside research plots.
Aflatoxin management is another production issue, not merely a food-safety footnote. Grain damaged by drought stress, insects or poor drying and storage can lose value in feed, food and export channels. Raising output without upgrading drying, testing and storage could increase tonnage while leaving a larger share commercially discounted or unusable for higher-value markets.
Domestic demand will decide where the extra grain goes
India already produces maize throughout the year and was the world’s fifth-largest producer in 2024, according to the government’s Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. APEDA reports that India exported 1.25 million tonnes in 2025–26. Compared with the 55.093-million-tonne production estimate, that is only about 2.3%, underlining how strongly the market is driven by domestic food, livestock-feed, starch and fuel demand.
The conference framed maize as a crop for food, feed, fodder, fuel and farmer income. That breadth is also a source of tension. Poultry and livestock users need competitively priced feed; processors require consistent quality; ethanol creates another large demand channel; and consumers remain exposed when grain prices rise. The official release does not allocate the proposed 20-million-tonne increment among those uses.
Exports could expand if production grows faster than domestic use, but the present trade base is modest relative to output. APEDA lists Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam as the three largest destinations in 2025–26. Export competitiveness will depend not only on volume but also on freight, moisture, aflatoxin control and the relationship between domestic and international prices.
What would make the goal credible
The first evidence should be a transparent baseline: final 2025–26 production, harvested area and yield by season and state. The next step is a pathway showing how much of the increase is expected from higher yield, additional crop cycles, changed acreage and reduced post-harvest loss. Without that split, it is difficult to judge the pressure on water, competing crops or farm margins.
Progress should also be measured beyond national tonnage. Useful indicators include hybrid-seed availability and adoption, yield variability under heat and water stress, aflatoxin rejection rates, storage capacity, irrigation efficiency, farmer prices and the share of grain moving into feed, food processing and ethanol. National output can rise even while some regions or growers become more exposed to risk.
India has already shown that maize output can move rapidly. Reaching 75 million tonnes is arithmetically plausible, but the official announcement leaves the hardest choices unresolved: where the additional grain will be grown, which demand channel will pay for it and how the country will avoid trading one crop deficit for another.
Sources and methodology
Agrilinkage used the 2 November 2026 Government of India conference release, the May 2026 third advance crop estimates, the Economics and Statistics Division source page and APEDA’s maize production and trade page. Percentage changes and the export share were calculated from those published figures and rounded to one decimal place.
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