Proceedings of the Fifth Asian Regional Maize Workshop - Search ...

The existing distribution of maize cultivation throughout Bangladesh is depicted in Table 1.
At present, most of the maize is reportedly cultivated in the region associated with the Chittagong
Hill Tracts. There, in 1983-84, maize occupied about 3725 ha. During that same period, the
next highest concentration of maize was in the Rajshahi region, with 445 ha cultivated. The
third area was in the Dhaka region, with about 202 ha. All these areas tend to be high flood
free land, best suited to maize and other crops.
The relative profitability of maize along with other crops has been studied by Kaul et aT,
1987. On a full cost basis, including cash as well as non-cash costs, maize grain was comparable
with T. aman (transplanted rice grown in mid July and harvested in mid Nov.), having a benefit:
cost ratio of 2.5.
However, when maize is harvested for green cobs or a combination of both grain and cobs,
the profitability was reported to be higher than any other field crop. This was established to
be 2.8 for a harvest of 1:1 of cob: grain and 3.2 for a harvest of cobs only. Table 2 gives the
estimated area and production of maize in Bangladesh.
Table 2.
Estimated area and production of maize along with rice and wheat in Bangladesh.
Maize Rice Wheat
Year Area Production Area Production Area PrOductlon
(000 ha) (000 t) (000 ha) (000 t) (000 ha) (000 t)
1983-84 5 3 1,055 14,509 526 1,192
1984-85 4 3 1,023 14,391 677 1,441
1985-86 3 3 1,040 14,802 540 1,026
1986-87 3 3 1,061 15,163 585 1,074
1987-88 3 3 10,327 15,738 598 1,031
1988-89 4 3 10,229 15,298 560 1,006
1989-90 3 3 10,483 17 ,857 592 890
1990-91 3 3 10,440 17,852 599 1,004
2. Potential for maize in Bangladesh
The entire land area in Bangladesh has been appraised and its suitability to different crops
determined (FAO, 1986). The necessary characteristics of land for the cultivation of maize in
terms of drainage, flooding depths, and other soil characteristics have been determined. Table 3
presents an estimate of land SUitability for maize in Bangladesh.
Land potentially suitable for maize is about 21% of the total cropped area of Bangladesh.
Presently, maize is cultivated on only about 0.04% of the total cropped area, and a great
potential is there for maize production in Bangladesh.
The prevailing rainfall and ground water resources are sufficient to meet the probable
crop water demand for maize estimated to range between 350 mm in the rabi season (from mid
OCtober to mid February) and 530 mm in the kharif season (from March to mid OCtober). The
rainfall data at different locations in Bangladesh are shown in Table 4.
different locations of Bangladesh.
Because of the favorable climatic conditions for maize, it may be grown throughout the year
in Bangladesh. This is depicted in Table 5.
3. The present market for maize
The maize market has been recently estimated (Drexler, 1990) as shown in Table 6. The
market segments have been described as first, second, and third priorities, depending on the need
to introduce new concepts for maize consumption or new processing technologies and machinery.
The first priority segments are expected to require little new technology and would be relatively
easy to be promoted.
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